FORT PIERCE, Fla. — The federal judge overseeing Donald Trump’s pending trial for allegedly mishandling classified documents chided prosecutors Thursday for “wasting the court’s time” with what she said was a vague and last-minute argument about a legal issue.
Judge Aileen Cannon said she was postponing one of a pair of hearings on the question of whether lawyers for Trump’s two co-defendants were able to represent their clients adequately because they have also represented witnesses in the case.
Her concern, she said, was that prosecutors working for special counsel Jack Smith made a somewhat new argument at the hearing that had not been raised in their court filings ahead of the hearing.
“I do want to admonish the government for frankly wasting the court’s time,” Cannon said, adding she was “disappointed.”
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The complication emerged at the second of two hearings scheduled for Carlos De Oliveira and Waltine “Walt” Nauta — Trump employees charged with allegedly helping the former president obstruct government attempts to retrieve classified materials that he had in his possession.
The special counsel’s office had raised concerns that lawyers for De Oliveira and Nauta previously represented potential witnesses in the case. The government requested a type of proceeding known as a Garcia hearing, in which the judge would make sure the two co-defendants understood the potential conflict and explicitly waived any concerns about it.
Prosecutors often seek such a hearing largely to ensure defendants don’t later try to use the issue to appeal a conviction.
Attorneys for both De Oliveira and Nauta have said in court filings that there are no conflicts.
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The classified-document indictment is one of four criminal cases Trump faces. He is separately charged in federal court in D.C. and state court in Georgia in connection with his efforts to block Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, and in state court in New York with falsification of business records in connection with a hush money payment during the 2016 election.
In the documents case, Nauta’s lawyer, Stanley Woodward, has represented at least seven other people whom prosecutors interviewed during their investigation, the government said in a court filing ahead of Thursday’s hearing. Two of those people could be called as government witnesses in the trial.
Prosecutors told Woodward earlier that at least one of his former clients had incriminating information against Nauta. While lawyers have been careful not to name that witness in court, referring to him only as “Trump Employee 4,” The Washington Post has previously reported that the witness is Yuscil Taveras, an IT worker at Mar-a-Lago, the former president’s private club and Florida residence where hundreds of classified documents were kept.
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After retaining a new lawyer to replace Woodward on July 5, Taveras offered prosecutors information implicating Trump, Nauta and De Oliveira in alleged efforts to delete Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage as the government was trying to retrieve the classified documents, The Post has reported.
At Thursday’s hearing, assistant special counsel David Harbach suggested Woodward owed his former client not just confidentiality, but loyalty, and said the situation called into question whether Woodward could effectively or fairly question that witness at trial, particularly when it came to the witness’s credibility.
“We don’t understand how Mr. Woodward could think he could cross-examine Trump Employee 4 at trial,” Harbach said. “We’re at a loss.”
Woodward, for his part, suggested he might nevertheless cross-examine that witness, and said it was unclear what prosecutors were asking for, or what was expected of him as Nauta’s lawyer. The judge appeared to share that concern and postponed the Nauta hearing.
A similar hearing for De Oliveira, the third defendant in the case, was less contentious.
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Prosecutors said De Oliveira’s lawyer, John Irving, previously represented three people the government may call as witnesses at trial, which is scheduled to begin in late May. At least one of the witnesses has potentially incriminating information that shows De Oliveira lied to government officials during the investigation, prosecutors said.
Cannon pressed De Oliveira, the property manager at Mar-a-Lago, to make sure he understood the implications of his lawyer having previously represented potential witnesses in the case.
De Oliveira, an immigrant from Portugal, said in imperfect English that he understood the conflict-of-interest concerns raised by prosecutors but nevertheless wanted to proceed with Irving as his lawyer — even if that decision meant he couldn’t later appeal based on that issue.
Unlike Woodward, Irving volunteered at the hearing not to cross-examine any witnesses who were past clients.
“I don’t have a problem” with which of his lawyers might question certain trial witnesses, De Oliveira told the judge.
Cannon accepted De Oliveira’s waiver of a potential conflict and said he could proceed with Irving as his lawyer.
Barrett reported from Washington.
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