After Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision to stall Donald Trump’s classified documents handling case, a prosecutor on special counsel Jack Smith’s team called a motion to toss the already-delayed proceedings “garbage” on Wednesday, per the Associated Press.
The motion, which argued that prosecutors unfairly targeted Donald Trump’s valet Walt Nauta for refusing to cooperate with their investigation, was the former president’s defense team’s latest attempt to halt the case.
The 40-count charges, stemming from the discovery of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after Trump left office, have been stuck in limbo since Judge Cannon indefinitely pushed back a trial earlier in May. But today’s motion on the status of Nauta as a co-defendant could’ve ended a bid for a trial altogether.
“There was a campaign to get Mr. Nauta to cooperate in the first federal prosecution of a former president of the United States and when he refused, they prosecuted him,” Nauta’s attorney Stanley Woodward reportedly argued. “That’s a violation of his constitutional rights.”
As prosecutors noted, it’s common to offer a deal to would-be defendants in exchange for their testimony, and there was no sign of vindictive prosecution. According to an AP report, prosecutor David Harbach called the argument “garbage,” adding that “there is not a single bit of evidence of animus toward Mr. Nauta.”
Cannon, who has fielded several motions for dismissal before, and tossed many of them, faces her own scrutiny over her handling of the case. A Tuesday filing suggests that the case could’ve seen a trial already if it weren’t for Cannon’s moves.
The classified documents case added yet another layer earlier in the week, as a newly-unsealed legal filing from the Trump defense which describes the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago led to Trump making claims that President Joe Biden was “locked & loaded ready to take me out.” The FBI refuted the claim, and Jack Smith’s team refuted the motion itself, arguing that the investigation was measured.