Prosecutors Suggest Impropriety In Walt Nauta’s Lawyer Representing Potential Witnesses In Documents Trial

// Is it bad to represent the defendant and the witnesses in a criminal trial? How about when a PAC for yet another defendant is paying your fee?

Asking for Stanley Woodward, attorney for Trump’s original co-defendant Walt Nauta, as well as six parties already questioned in the documents case. It would have been seven, but Mar-a-Lago’s IT head Yuscil Taveras, described in the indictment at “Trump Employee 4,” retained separate counsel and — by sheer coincidence! — appears to be cooperating with the government now.

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Taveras was the guy Carlos De Oliveira pulled into a closet and asked to destroy the surveillance videos at Trump’s behest, according to the superseding indictment which added De Oliveira as a co-defendant. Nonetheless, prosecutors report in their most recent filing that Woodward was unbothered by the potential conflict between his current and former client:

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In February and March 2023, the Government informed Mr. Woodward, orally and in writing, that his concurrent representation of Trump Employee 4 and Nauta raised a potential conflict of interest. The Government specifically informed Mr. Woodward that the Government believed Trump Employee 4 had information that would incriminate Nauta. Mr. Woodward informed the Government that he was unaware of any testimony that Trump Employee 4 would give that would incriminate Nauta and had advised Trump Employee 4 and Nauta of the Government’s position about a possible conflict. According to Mr. Woodward, he did not have reason to believe his concurrent representation of Trump Employee 4 and Nauta raised a conflict of interest.

Trump Employee 4 retained new counsel on July 5, 2023, and on July 27, 2023, the grand jury returned a superseding indictment adding Carlos De Oliveira as a defendant and charging all three defendants with obstruction-of-justice offenses stemming from their attempt to have Trump Employee 4 delete security camera footage at Mar-a-Lago.

So the government is now requesting a Garcia hearing “to conduct an inquiry regarding potential conflicts of interests that may arise from attorney Stanley Woodward, Jr.’s prior and current representation of three individuals the Government may call to testify at the trial of his client Waltine Nauta.”

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Woodward, who has been a thorn in the DOJ’s side since before the indictment was filed, represents two potential witnesses in this case. According to this morning’s motion, one “worked in the White House during Trump’s presidency and then subsequently worked for Trump’s post-presidential office in Florida.” This matches the description of the former president’s assistant Margo Martin, who was present for the incident at Bedminster where Trump was recorded referring to a classified document in the presence of Mark Meadows’s biographers.

The other witness is described as someone who “worked for Trump’s reelection campaign and worked for Trump’s political action committee after Trump’s presidency ended.” It’s not clear who that might be, although Woodward has represented Trump aides Dan Scavino and Kash Patel, both of whom, like Martin, have testified before a grand jury impaneled by the Special Counsel’s Office.

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Trump and De Oliveira appear to be staying far away from this issue, telling the government that they “take no position on this motion.” Similarly, Taveras “takes no position as to Mr. Woodward’s continuing representation of Nauta (or anyone else) but does not consent to the use or disclosure of his client confidences and expects Mr. Woodward to comport with the ethical rules regarding maintenance of client confidences.”

Nonetheless, the government is moving for a hearing at which Nauta and the two witnesses are present so that all parties can be apprised of potential conflicts. Let’s see whether Judge Aileen Cannon continues her “normal” streak or seizes this opportunity to go off the rails.

US v. Trump [Docket via Court Listener]

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

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Courts, Donald Trump, Legal Ethics, Stanley Woodward, Walt Nauta, Yuscil Taveras