WASHINGTON – On Wednesday, the Justice Department dropped all criminal charges against President Donald Trump’s two co-defendants in the Florida secret materials case, eliminating any legal risk the pair might have faced.
Trump valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira have been charged with conspiring with Trump to obstruct an FBI investigation into the stockpiling of secret materials that the Republican took with him when he left the White House following his first term.
In July, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dropped the case, stating that the prosecutor who filed it, special counsel Jack Smith, was illegally appointed by the Justice Department. Smith’s team dropped its case against Trump following his November election victory, citing longstanding department regulation that states sitting presidents cannot be indicted.
However, its appeal to the dismissal of charges against Nauta and De Olivera remained unresolved until Wednesday. Prosecutors informed the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the appeal had been dropped, thereby concluding the case.
“The United States of America moves to voluntarily dismiss its appeal with prejudice,” the prosecution claimed. “The government has conferred with counsel for Appellees Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, who do not object to the voluntary dismissal.”
The Justice Department had previously stated that Smith’s report on the classified documents investigation would not be made public while the proceedings against Nauta and De Oliveira were ongoing. However, with the appeal lost, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee requested that acting Attorney General James McHenry make the report accessible to them, stating that they needed access to examine the material as they prepare to consider Kash Patel’s nomination to be FBI director.
Patel testified before the grand jury in the probe in 2022, after receiving immunity.
Trump’s Justice Department is largely anticipated to keep the findings under wraps indefinitely.
