COURT COULD AX DON AIDES’ LAWYERS IN DOC CASE
Judge sets Oct. 12 hearing to examine possible conflicts of interest raised by prosecutor
Judge Aileen Cannon on Monday ordered a hearing to determine whether lawyers for former President Donald Trump’s two co-defendants in the upcoming Mar-a-Lago documents trial have conflicts of interest that could shake up the explosive case.
The south Florida federal judge set an Oct.12 hearing that could lead to new legal counsel being appointed for either valet Walt Nauta or property manager Carlos D’Oliveira, who are both charged with helping Trump obstruct justice.
Prosecutors say that Nauta’s lawyer Stanley Woodward may be unable to properly represent Nauta because he previously represented a Mar-a-Lago IT worker who flipped on Trump after switching lawyers.
That would likely mean Woodward would be barred from cross-examining the IT worker, special counsel Jack Smith’s team has argued.
Smith has also suggested that Woodward and a lawyer for D’Oliveira have conflicts of interest because they are being paid by a Trump political action committee, raising major questions about their independence.
John Irving, a lawyer for D’Oliveira, also represents several other Mar-a-Lago workers who could be called as witnesses, another potential conflict.
Although the issue does not directly involve Trump, it could cause a major legal headache for him if it drives a wedge between him and the two underlings, who have so far remained fiercely loyal even as they face potential prison time.
Trump is accused of mishandling hundreds of classified documents that he took with him to Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House and defying the feds’ effort to get them back. He allegedly ordered Nauta to move boxes of documents to hide them from investigators and even his own defense lawyers.
Nauta and D’Oliveira allegedly schemed to help Trump cover up his effort to improperly keep the documents, some of which included top-secret U.S. war plans and descriptions of another nation’s nuclear capabilities.
Cannon will likely seek to determine whether Nauta and D’Oliveira understand the potential conflicts that their lawyers are saddled with.
She could order them to obtain new lawyers or appoint federal public defenders to give them independent legal advice about their cases.
A similar process recently led a Washington, D.C., federal judge to appoint a lawyer to advise Yuscil Taveras, the IT worker.
When given unvarnished advice about his criminal exposure, Taveras quickly recanted his testimony that he knew nothing about the classified documents or the effort to obstruct the probe.
He told investigators that D’Oliveira told him that “the boss” wanted him to delete security footage showing boxes of documents being moved in an effort to hide them.
The footage was never deleted but Smith says Taveras’ testimony is potent evidence of Trump’s effort to thwart the probe.