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The judge in Donald Trump's classified documents case has ordered Trump's co-accused to explain why he was so late in filing a motion.
This is the second time in two weeks that Judge Aileen Cannon has demanded an explanation from Trump's valet, Walt Nauta, who is accused of hiding classified documents at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
The legal website Law And Crime called Cannon's order "exceedingly rare."
It comes one month after the chief prosecutor accused Nauta of trying to delay the trial as much as possible with an ever-changing list of reasons for filing late documents.
The former president is facing 40 federal charges over his handling of sensitive materials retrieved from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach after leaving the White House in January 2021. He is accused of obstructing efforts by federal authorities to return them. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Newsweek emailed attorneys for Nauta and Trump for comment on Tuesday.
Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, a Mar-a-Lago maintenance worker, are accused of moving boxes of sensitive materials around Trump's Florida home to prevent federal agents from finding them and conspiring to delete security footage that had been sought under a subpoena.
In her order filed on June 3, Cannon said: "The Court is in receipt of Defendant Nauta's Notice of Filing which attaches the overdue redacted filing [138] but fails to fully comply with the Court's Order to Show Cause. Defendant Nauta is reminded that, on or before June 3, 2024, he must 'show cause, in writing, why he failed to comply with the Court's instructions by the original deadline of May 28, 2024.'"
In a case marked by long delays over the handling of highly sensitive classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago, Nauta was seeking permission to use some of the discovery documents to undermine the prosecution case.
In his redacted motion, filed in court on June 2, whole paragraphs are blacked out to avoid identifying witnesses or referencing classified documents.
It does allege that prosecutors entered into negotiations with one potential witness, identified only as Trump Employee 4, and that this person was eventually offered a "Non-Prosecution Agreement in exchange for his 'cooperation' with the Special Counsel's investigation."
The following paragraph is then blacked out, per the court's order to Nauta.
However, Cannon wants to know why this document, with the necessary redactions, is being filed so late and wants a written explanation from Nauta, which was absent when Nauta filed the redacted motion on Sunday.
Although Cannon has not stated a reason for her displeasure, her annoyance may lie in a May 5 filing by prosecutor Jack Smith, in which he accused Nauta of using ever-changing tactics to delay the trial as much as possible.
Smith accused Nauta of repeatedly switching reasons for delaying the trial, using every excuse from his lawyer's vacation to nonexistent disclosure delays.
"Originally, Nauta had counted on leveraging his counsel's vacation and trial schedule to delay the proceedings. But when his counsel's trial schedule excuse evaporated, Nauta was forced to devise a new basis—that the Government's discovery is insufficient," Smith wrote.
He added that Nauta has been given the discovery documents plus additional material to help sort and read them.
"Nauta's latest basis for delay is...factually wrong—the Government has afforded Nauta technical support, indexing, and material not required by the Federal Rules or provided in most criminal cases," Smith wrote.
"In his motion, Nauta resorts to a familiar tactic by trying to paint a confusing and misleading picture of the state of discovery," he wrote.
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About the writer
Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. ... Read more