Department of Justice moves to drop case against Trump aides

by · Mail Online

The Justice Department has moved to drop the government's prosecution of two Donald Trump aides charged in the same classified documents case that once ensnared the president.

The move, spelled out in a court filing that was unopposed by the defendants, comes days after Trump fired more than a dozen prosecutors at DOJ who were involved in former special counsel Jack Smith's prosecution of Trump last year.

Smith moved to drop both the January 6 case against Trump in Washington, D.C. and the classified documents case following Trump's election win.  He cited DOJ guidance on prosecuting a sitting president.

An Appeals court accepted his request to drop the classified documents case against Trump. 

Nevertheless, the DOJ's case against two Trump aides charged along with Trump continued – even as longtime valet Walt Nauta followed Trump back to the White House.

Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon had dismissed the case against Trump, agreeing with defense lawyers that Smith's appointment was unconstitutional. DOJ stopped appealing that decision following the election, but kept up the prosecution of the aides.DO

'The United States of America moves to voluntarily dismiss its appeal with prejudice. The government has conferred with counsel for Appellees Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, who do not object to the voluntary dismissal,' prosecutors wrote.

The nine-page document, signed by U.S. attorney Hayden P. O'Byrne, did not give a reason for dropping the case. 

A superseding indictment in July charged Trump, Nauta, and De Oliveira with conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding and concealing documents, and making false statements. Trump was charged with keeping national security documents from the White House at his Mar-a-Lago club.

The Justice Department issued a court filing seeking to drop the case against longtime Trump aide Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira. Both were Trump codefendants in the classified documents case

Nauta is his longtime valet who was Trump's Navy 'body man' in the White House. De Oliveira was hired as the club's property manager in 2022. 

The indictment listed a string of times when Nauta and others allegedly moved classified material stored in boxes around the club. 

 In one instance, in 2021, Nauta found boxes with their contents spilling onto the floor of a storage room, according to the indictment. 

'I opened the door and found this ...' he wrote an employee with an image attached. 'Oh no oh no,' the employee wrote back.

DOJ dropped its appeal in the case after Donald Trump won the election
Carlos De Oliveira, center, an employee of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, leaves a court appearance with attorney John Irving, left, at the James Lawrence King Federal Justice Building, Monday, July 31, 2023, in Miami

But the indictment says Nauta made 'false and misleading' statements to investigators when asked about the boxes. 

Days before Trump took office, lawyers for Nauta and De Oliveira argued that Smith's final report on the classified documents case and the decisions behind it should not be made public, fearing it could prejudice the case against their clients.

After courts put that report on hold, DOJ released a single volume of Smith's report charging Trump conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and obstructing an official proceeding. 

Trump has long called all the cases against him a 'witch hunt,' and during his first days in office has been busy trying to purge officials he accuses of being involved in the 'weaponization' of government.