Trump codefendants want out of classified documents case, say they had 'no clue' what was in boxes

FORT PIERCE — One week after the federal judge overseeing the classified documents case against Donald Trump rejected another of the former president's motions to drop the charges, his codefendants are trying out their own luck.

Carlos De Oliveira, a property manager at Trump's Palm Beach estate, and Trump aide Waltine Nauta will appear in a Fort Pierce federal courtroom at 2 p.m. Friday in hopes of convincing U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to dismiss the numerous obstruction-related offenses against them.

Lawyers for De Oliveira said he had "no clue" what was in the boxes he moved around Mar-a-Lago at Trump's instruction — nor that a grand jury subpoena had been issued for the surveillance footage he's accused of trying to delete — and is therefore not guilty of obstructing justice.

Nauta's attorneys say he didn't know he was running afoul of the law when he moved boxes "whose contents he was not aware of." They say that because he wasn't acting "corruptly" or with any inkling that he could be committing a crime, the counts against him should be likewise be dismissed.

In the event that Cannon denies their motions, she will then consider whether to order Special Counsel Jack Smith's team of prosecutors to give the men a more detailed breakdown of the charges against them, known as a bill of particulars.

Friday's hearing, which Trump has not indicated he will attend, comes three days before the start of jury selection in the former president's hush-money case in Manhattan. It also follows a series of recent back-and-forths between the Trump-appointed judge and the special counsel prosecuting him.

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Cannon made several key decisions in the weeks leading to Friday's hearing. The first and most divisive was an order instructing prosecutors and defense attorneys to weigh in on two possible jury instructions for the trial. Both instructions appeared to embrace Trump’s position that, as president, he had the uncheckable authority to convert classified records into personal ones.

Deeming her order “flawed” and “wrong," Smith asked Cannon to finalize the instructions she plans to give jurors and rule on Trump's Presidential Records Act argument "promptly," in order for him to appeal either decision if necessary. Cannon obliged in part, rejecting Trump's PRA argument but declining to cement the jury instructions — a demand she called “unprecedented and unjust."

Cannon added that “any party remains free to avail itself of whatever appellate options it sees fit to invoke.” The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals already reversed her ruling in the classified documents case once before, overturning her order that granted a special third-party review of the documents Trump is accused of mishandling.

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Cannon released an order Tuesday ending a longstanding dispute with prosecutors over whether witnesses will be publicly identified in court records. Though ruling mostly in the Justice Department's favor, she took the opportunity to criticize its special counsel again, chiding Smith for what she said were poorly made legal arguments in the early stages of the discussion.

Smith had argued that revealing the names of FBI agents, Secret Service agents and other potential witnesses involved in the investigation would subject them to harassment and possible intimidation. Trump and a coalition of media groups, including The Palm Beach Post, pressed for the names to be made public.

Cannon initially ruled against redacting the names but relented this week. In a boon to Trump and the media coalition, and counter to what Smith recommended, she ruled that the substance of the witness statements can be made public as long as they do not identify the witnesses.

The judge has yet to decide on a trial date for the high-profile case or a number of other pretrial legal issues, including several more of Trump's motions to dismiss. Prosecutors have suggested the trial could begin in early July, while Trump’s lawyers have argued it should start no earlier than August.

Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Trump codefendants vie to have classified documents charges dropped