WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal judge presiding over the confidential documents case against Donald Trump refused Saturday to dismiss charges against a co-defendant of the former president.
Lawyers for Walt Nauta, Trump’s personal valet, asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to dismiss the charge against your client. They argued, among other things, that Nauta was charged because of insufficient cooperation with prosecutors’ investigation and because of personal animosity that they said prosecutors harbored toward one of Nauta’s lawyers.
Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team denied all allegations, and Cannon, in his four-page order Saturday, said Nauta did not meet the requirements required for the case to be dismissed.
Nauta and another co-defendant, Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira, are accused of conspiring with Trump to hide evidence of investigators as they tried to recover confidential documents that were taken to the Palm Beach, Florida, estate after the end of Trump’s presidency.
All three men have pleaded not guilty.
No trial date has been set in the case. Trump also sought to dismiss the case, and Cannon clearly noted in the conclusion of his order: “This order should not be construed as a comment on the merits of Defendant Trump’s motion to dismiss the indictment on the basis of selective and vindictive prosecution or any other application pending in Court.”
