Recently, a federal judge denounced the prosecution in the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing the case, held special counsel Jack Smith accountable during a hearing last week regarding a possible conflict with a lawyer in the case.
Judge Cannon postponed a hearing on whether a co-defendant of Mr. Trump understood that his lawyer could have conflicting interests. According to reports, Judge Cannon “admonished” the prosecution for “wasting” time over the matter. “I do want to admonish the government for frankly wasting the court’s time,” Judge Cannon told David Harbach, a prosecutor working alongside the special counsel Jack Smith on the case.
A report from the New York Times gave further context to the situation, discussing the request from Jack Smith’s team to hold the hearing. “At issue was a request by Mr. Smith’s team that Judge Cannon hold a hearing to make sure that Mr. Trump’s co-defendants — both of whom are employed by him — understood that their lawyers, who are being paid by a political action committee affiliated with the former president and who have represented witnesses in the case, had possible conflicts. In the case of one co-defendant, Carlos De Oliveira, the property manager at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s private club and residence, the hearing proceeded largely without incident. Mr. De Oliveira’s lawyer, John Irving, had represented three witnesses in the case,” according to The Times.
The prosecution also sought to look into possible conflicts of interest with longtime Trump aide Walt Nauta, who is represented by his attorney, Stanley Woodward. Judge Cannon further criticized the special counsel for not objecting to these alleged conflicting interests in court filings before the hearing, which would have saved time and resources.
Carlos De Oliviera and Walt Nauta are pleading not guilty to allegations of obstructing the investigation into Trump’s handling of the classified documents. The trial for the case against former President Trump is set to begin in May 2024.
Despite Mr. Trump facing several looming legal battles before the 2024 election, he has continued aggressively campaigning and maintaining an untouchable lead against the other Republican challengers. One of Trump’s lawyers, Alina Haba, recently spoke out against the four indictments the former president is up against.
“I know our legal team does as well, to get to take our own turn at looking at all of the information and our own turn to put our side out, which is something that everybody needs to remember hasn’t happened as of yet. Four indictments are simply that, an indictment, which is just one-sided B.S., for a lack of a better word, on their political scheme to interfere with the leading candidate for president,” she said.
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She continued, “Joe Biden doesn’t know what he is doing in office, so let’s distract America so that all we talk about is President Trump and these hoaxes. That’s really all they are. So we are going to obviously argue that it’s impossible for one person to be in four different places. We’re going to argue that this is election interference.”