DOJ And Trump Valet Walt Nauta Take Swipes At Each Other In Dueling Motions

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(Photo by Chandan Khanna / AFP) (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)

On June 8, Walt Nauta, Trump’s valet, was indicted in the Southern District of Florida along with his boss by Special Counsel Jack Smith. A mere four weeks later, Nauta finally managed to retain counsel admitted in the district and pled not guilty last Thursday.

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Also on Thursday Judge Aileen Cannon ordered every attorney for the parties to move immediately for an expedited security clearance, repeating an earlier order she first issued on June 15. This unsubtle prodding is in anticipation of the previously scheduled July 14 conference on compliance with the Classified Information Procedures Act. CIPA governs the use of classified evidence in court and was passed to solve the problem of “graymail,” whereby defendants could demand that prosecutors either present classified documents in open court, or drop the case.

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Long before the indictment was unsealed, the entire world was aware that this prosecution would involve classified documents. Indeed Nauta’s attorney Stanley Woodward represented Nauta in multiple pre-indictment interviews with the FBI, including the one on May 26, 2022, in which he is alleged to have made the false statement about the location of Trump’s “beautiful mind boxes,” for which he was later indicted. Nevertheless, Woodward filed a motion today demanding that the CIPA hearing be postponed.

Nauta’s lawyer, who is being paid by Trump’s PAC, makes various arguments in support of his demand for a continuance. First he complains that DOJ all but ambushed him by indicting his client in Florida, where the actual crimes occurred. Then he complains that he won’t be available, since he’ll be in DC representing on the of January 6 defendants for a trial beginning Thursday, a fact he insists the DOJ must have known. And then, most bizarrely, he suggests that he was unaware of the CIPA conference until Nauta hired local counsel and Woodward was finally able to access the SDFL’s ECF system.

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At that time, Mr. Nauta, through counsel was not receiving electronic notices through the Court’s CM/ECF filing system, the government did not advise counsel that the pretrial CIPA conference had been scheduled, and even when counsel did learn of the conference, Mr. Nauta had no ability to formally move the Court for relief based upon his counsel’s unavailability. Rather, it was not until Wednesday, July 5, 2023, that Mr. Nauta retained local counsel, Sasha Dadan, and Thursday, July 6, 2023, that Chief Magistrate Judge Torres entered an Order permitting Mr. Nauta, through counsel to file electronically with the Court.

There’s also this headscratcher, which implies that Woodward opposed holding a CIPA hearing at all when the DOJ approached him prior to its June 23 request for a conference date.

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Although government counsel asked whether Mr. Nauta’s longtime counsel opposed such a hearing – we did – and provided an electronic courtesy copy of the same, the government did not request any dates when defense counsel would be unavailable for such a conference.

Apparently, this also caused some consternation at the Special Counsel’s Office, which responded a couple of hours later to oppose the motion, suggesting that Woodward is either really, ummm, forgetful, or he’s got one hell of a typo in his motion:

In the motion, Nauta claims that, when asked his position on the government’s CIPA § 2 motion, Mr. Woodward indicated that he opposed it. Motion at 2. It is possible that there is a word missing in Nauta’s filing – “not.” On the afternoon of June 16, in compliance with Local Rule 88.9(a), government counsel conferred with Mr. Woodward by phone concerning its planned CIPA Section 2 Motion. Government counsel discussed the motion with Mr. Woodward and the relief it sought. Mr. Woodward stated that he did not oppose the motion, and the government so represented in the motion it filed with the Court.

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Similarly, the government claims that Woodward did not raise his scheduling issue until the 27th, and anyway no one needs to have clearance before the hearing, since no classified documents will be disclosed until the CIPA procedures are agreed on. Although, they also point out that Woodward has not yet turned in his Form SF-86 to apply for clearance anyway. Maybe he was unaware of it since he never saw the docket before securing pro hac vice admission!

Finally, prosecutors scoff that Nauta can be represented by his local counsel at the CIPA hearing, despite the fact that his new lawyer Sasha Daden has been on the case less than a week and appears to have zero federal experience. This last argument prompted major side eye from national security lawyer Kel McClanahan, who calls the government motion to oppose the delay and force Dadan to sit in for Woodward “a truly dick move.”

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That’s just not how that works. Yes the rules say that, but nobody ever actually expects that, especially when it’s clear that the pro hac vice lawyer is the primary lawyer. Citing that rule as a reason that a criminal defendant shouldn’t be allowed to have his preferred counsel at a $%^&ing evidentiary hearing is dickery of the highest order, and it’s frankly uncalled for in a case like this where every step needs to be *completely* beyond reproach.

DOJ gonna DOJ.

US v. Trump [Docket via Court Listener]

Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics and appears on the Opening Arguments podcast.

Topics

Department of Justice, Donald Trump, Government, Stanley Woodward, Walt Nauta