In a surprise twist, a routine court hearing related to former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents came to an abrupt halt.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon reprimanded federal prosecutor David Harbach for “wasting the court’s time” with a legal argument she found unnecessary.
The purpose of the hearing was ostensibly to see if Trump’s associates, Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira, understood that their lawyers might have conflicts of interest that could affect their cases.
Here’s some background: Nauta and Oliveira are accused of helping Trump hide sensitive documents at his Palm Beach estate, Mar-a-Lago.
Nauta faces several charges, including conspiracy to obstruct justice and lying to police. Oliveira is said to have assisted in keeping the classified documents away from investigators.
So, what was the argument about? The prosecutor, Harbach, questioned whether Nauta and Oliveira should be represented by their current lawyers.
Harbach felt these lawyers had a conflict of interest because they had represented people who might be called as witnesses against Nauta and Oliveira.
Specifically, Harbach said, “Irving is under obligations of confidentiality and loyalty to former clients,” which could be a problem if the lawyer had to question these former clients during the trial.
But Judge Cannon was not convinced. The Palm Beach Post reported that the judge grew increasingly impatient with Harbach, even though he claimed his stance was backed by previous court decisions.
According to The New York Times, the main issue was a request by Special Counsel Jack Smith to make sure Nauta and Oliveira knew their lawyers might have conflicts.
For instance, Oliveira’s lawyer, John Irving, had previously represented three witnesses who might testify in the case.
Similarly, Nauta’s lawyer, Stanley Woodward, had once represented another witness, thought to be a tech aide at Mar-a-Lago.
Woodward spoke out against the unclear demands of the prosecution, saying it would be “intrinsically unfair” to question Nauta about keeping him as a lawyer under these complicated circumstances.
Judge Cannon agreed with this point and stopped the hearing.
She said it wasn’t possible to proceed fairly and decided to postpone the matter.
When asked when the lawyers would meet again, Cannon cryptically replied, “Stay tuned.”
