Walt Nauta, personal aide to former U.S. President Donald Trump who faces charges of being Trump’s co-conspirator in the alleged mishandling of classified documents, walks with Trump during a LIV Golf Pro-Am golf tournament at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, U.S. May 25, 2023.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
The Department of Justice on Wednesday moved to end its attempt to prosecute two men for their alleged efforts to help their former co-defendant President Donald Trump hide classified government documents from officials seeking their recovery.
The DOJ, in a court filing, asked to voluntarily dismiss an appeal that sought to revive its criminal case against the men: Trump’s valet Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, a worker at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.
The filing at the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was signed by Miami U.S. Attorney Hayden O’Byrne.
The DOJ after November’s election dropped an appeal that sought to revive the criminal case against Trump because of a department policy that bars prosecutions of sitting presidents.
Trump had been charged by then-special counsel Jack Smith in U.S. District Court in south Florida with crimes related to his retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after the end of his first term in the White House in January 2021, and with obstructing the recovery of those records by government officials.
In July, District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, whom Trump nominated to the bench, dismissed the case against Trump, Nauta and De Oliveira. Cannon in a ruling wrote that Smith’s appointment as special counsel by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland violated the appointments clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The DOJ then appealed Cannon’s ruling at the 11th Circuit.
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