The Justice Department moved on Wednesday to terminate its case against President Donald Trump‘s two co-defendants in Florida, a reversal after the department, under special counsel Jack Smith, had attempted to keep the classified documents charges against the pair alive.
A Florida-based federal prosecutor filed the brief motion asking the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to toss out its appeal in the case. Smith had withdrawn his charges against Trump after he won the election, but the former special counsel kept intact Walt Nauta’s and Carlos De Oliveira’s charges of obstructing a federal investigation.
Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case against all three of the defendants earlier this year, issuing an unconventional ruling that Smith was an illegitimate special counsel. Smith was in the process of appealing the ruling with the 11th Circuit at the time of Trump’s election victory, but that appeal effort is now over.
The Trump DOJ’s decision to end the case against Nauta and De Oliveira came as expected after Trump had repeatedly denounced the charges against him and his co-defendants as a politicized “witch hunt” during his presidential campaign.
Nauta worked as an aide for Trump, and recent photos showed he was now working for Trump in the White House. De Oliveira was a property manager at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Nauta and De Oliveira were accused of trying to cover up that Trump was allegedly hoarding classified national defense information, including by deleting security footage at Mar-a-Lago. They both pleaded not guilty.
The end of their case is likely to revive a fight over releasing the volume of Smith’s special counsel report on Trump’s handling of classified documents.
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Former Attorney General Merrick Garland released the first volume, which concerned the 2020 election, before Trump assumed office. But Trump’s legal team successfully fought to keep the second volume under wraps after Garland signaled that he wanted to provide that volume to certain members of Congress.
Cannon ruled that the second volume must remain confidential while the classified documents case was open, but now that it is soon to be closed, Congress or a judge could force the Trump administration into making it public.