‘Trash argument’: Classified documents hearing heats up over accusations against Trump co-defendant Walt Nauta

A hearing in former President Donald Trump’s classified federal documents case was heated at times Wednesday as prosecutors in Special Counsel Jack’s Smith’s office grew frustrated with what they called “absurd” arguments » presented by Trump’s co-defendant, Walt Nauta, in his effort to obtain the indictment. against Nauta rejected.

“This was difficult to accept for many reasons,” prosecutor David Harbach said of the arguments made by Nauta’s attorney, Stanley Woodward. “That’s a silly argument to begin with.”

Nauta, the longtime Trump aide, and Carlos De Oliveira, the property manager of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, pleaded not guilty last August to obstruction charges related to alleged attempts to remove the surveillance footage from Mar-a-Lago, after Trump pleaded not guilty in June to 37 criminal charges related to his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House.

Prosecutors accused Nauta of lying to the FBI in May 2022 when he told agents he was unaware of the boxes brought to Trump’s residence and said he did not know where they had been stored before being taken there.

Nauta’s lawyers are seeking to have the charges against him dropped on the grounds that he is being pursued in a “selective” and “vindictive” manner by investigators. At Wednesday’s hearing, Woodward said Nauta is being “selectively prosecuted” because many other people also moved boxes at Mar-a-Lago but are not being prosecuted.

Harbach disputed that claim, saying “no one did everything Nauta did,” including allegations of perjury and efforts to destroy evidence.

“The only people comparable to him are his co-defendants,” Harbach said.

Woodward also claims that during an August 2022 meeting he had with prosecutors, Woodward was inappropriately pressured by a member of Smith’s team over a pending judicial appointment.

According to Woodward’s account, prosecutor Jay Bratt questioned him about his impending nomination to the Washington Superior Court and suggested that Woodward’s affiliation with Trump could negatively affect his confirmation.

The special counsel wholeheartedly disputes these claims and emphasized in court that Woodward’s account of what happened during the meeting was inconsistent.

“Mr. Woodward’s story of what happened at that meeting is a fantasy; it did not happen,” Harbach exclaimed.

When U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon repeated certain quotes Woodward claimed prosecutors made during that August 2022 meeting, and pressed why those comments needed to be made and whether those comments were professional, Harbach , after consulting his colleagues, did not dispute the comments but asserts that they are “fragmented” and “out of context”.

At one point, Judge Cannon asked Harbach to “calm down” when he became emotional while answering her questions about whether efforts had been made to preserve evidence related to the meeting in question.

“That’s not true!” Harbach said after Cannon suggested the government made no effort to preserve the evidence. “That’s not what I said…the government did nothing to destroy or obstruct the evidence.”

Cannon, meanwhile, seems none too pleased with Woodward’s argument, repeatedly asking him if he could cite any evidence to suggest that the alleged comments made to him during that meeting relate in one way or another in the unjust pursuit of his client.

Cannon said she was unclear about the “connection between the allegations about comments made to you and how that affected Mr. Nauta’s non-cooperation.”

The gist of Woodward’s claim during the hearing was that his client was being “vindictively pursued” because of his refusal to testify before the grand jury and turn against Trump.

“Presumably, if Nauta had decided to cooperate, we would all be friends here,” Woodward said.

There has also been controversy over when Nauta was informed of the possibility that he was a target of the investigation and not just a witness.

Woodward claimed Nauta was unaware of possible obstruction charges until he received his target letter, while the prosecution claimed a November 2022 search warrant on the device de Nauta was an indication of possible obstruction charges.