The U.S. Justice Department has dropped all criminal charges against Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, two co-defendants of former President Donald Trump in the Florida classified documents case. The move comes after a federal judge dismissed Trump's case in July, citing irregularities in the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith.
The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday abandoned all criminal proceedings against two co-defendants of President Donald Trump in the Florida classified documents case, effectively eliminating any legal jeopardy they faced.
Walt Nauta, Trump's valet, and Carlos De Oliveira, the former property manager of Mar-a-Lago, were initially charged with conspiring with Trump to obstruct an FBI investigation into the retention of classified documents that Trump allegedly took from the White House after his first term. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed Trump's case in July, citing that special counsel Jack Smith, who brought the charges, was unlawfully appointed by the Justice Department in November 2022. While Smith's team intended to appeal this ruling, they withdrew their appeal following Trump's victory in the November election. However, an appeal concerning the dismissal of charges against Nauta and De Oliveira was still pending. On Wednesday, prosecutors informed the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that they had voluntarily dismissed the appeal, formally concluding the case. 'The United States of America moves to voluntarily dismiss its appeal with prejudice,' prosecutors stated. 'The government has conferred with counsel for appellees Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, who do not object to the voluntary dismissal.' The Justice Department had previously pledged not to release Smith's report on the classified documents investigation as long as legal proceedings remained active against Nauta and De Oliveira. With the case now closed, many anticipate that the Trump administration Justice Department will permanently keep the report confidential.Trump was accused of taking thousands of documents containing highly sensitive national security secrets when he left the White House in January 2021 and storing them haphazardly at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Reports also suggest that another document might have been in Trump's possession at a New Jersey property he owns. The 37-count indictment included alleged violations of the Espionage Act and involved dozens of top-secret or secret documents. Prosecutors alleged that Trump, Nauta, and De Oliveira conspired to conceal video footage from federal investigators after a subpoena was issued. Prosecutors claimed that video footage captured Nauta moving boxes of documents in and out of a storage room prior to an investigator's visit. According to the indictment, De Oliveira allegedly told another unnamed Trump employee that 'the boss wanted the server deleted,' referring to surveillance footage of the document movements. The classified documents investigation originated in 2022 after the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration spent over a year trying to retrieve presidential records from Trump. A search of his Florida estate in August 2022 sparked outrage among many Republicans, who accused the Justice Department under President Joe Biden's administration of targeting a political opponent. This case concluded alongside another separate criminal matter that Smith dropped after Trump faced a federal indictment for actions related to contesting his 2020 election loss to Biden and his role in the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.
Donald Trump Classified Documents Justice Department Walt Nauta Carlos De Oliveira Espionage Act Mar-A-Lago U.S. National Archives And Records Administration Joe Biden
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