FORT PIERCE, Fla. — A federal prosecutor angrily dismissed allegations Wednesday of vindictive prosecution and prosecutorial misconduct by one of former President Donald Trump’s co-defendants in the classified documents case, calling some of the allegations ” rubbish” and “a fantasy.”
“It was hard to take,” prosecutor David Harbach said of attorney Stanley Woodward’s arguments to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that his client, Walt Nauta, had been indicted in retaliation for not cooperating with the government.
“It’s a useless argument to begin with,” Harbach said, before rejecting Woodward’s allegations that another prosecutor in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office had improperly tried to pressure Woodward when submitting his application for a judgeship in Washington, D.C., during a trial. meeting.
“Sir. Woodward’s story about what happened” at the August 2022 meeting between Woodward and prosecutor Jay Bratt “is a fantasy,” Harbach said. “It didn’t happen,” he said, adding that even if it did, it would still thus it would not meet the standard of a vindictive accusation.
Under questioning from Cannon, Harbach, who was not at the meeting, said Woodward’s alleged quotes from the meeting were “fragmentary” and “out of context.”
Harbach appeared agitated throughout the proceedings, and at one point the judge interrupted: “I’m going to ask you to calm down.”
Woodward maintained that his account of the meeting was accurate. “These things happened,” he said of his allegations. “What I understood at the time was that Mr. Nauta’s refusal to cooperate could be used against him.”
He told the judge he is prepared to give a statement and testify under oath about the meeting. Bratt was also present in court for the hearing, but did not address the judge during the morning hearing.
Cannon is scheduled to hold another hearing in the afternoon on another motion by Nauta seeking to dismiss charges against all three defendants in the case – Trump, his valet Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, property manager of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate – for alleged procedural flaws in the prosecution.
The case was scheduled to go to trial on Monday, but Trump appointee Cannon postponed the trial date indefinitely earlier this month, citing a “myriad” of legal issues she has yet to resolve, including the motions to dismiss. .
Trump faces dozens of criminal charges in the case, including willful withholding of national defense information, false statements and representations, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding of a document or record, and corrupt concealment of a document. Nauta and Oliveira are accused of helping Trump hide documents, making false statements to federal investigators about their involvement and conspiring to delete security footage from Mar-a-Lago that had been subpoenaed by the Justice Department. All three pleaded not guilty.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
