DOJ Drops Appeal Against Trump's Co-Defendants in Classified Documents Case

The Department of Justice, now under new leadership following Donald Trump's inauguration, has moved to drop its appeal of the classified documents case that once accused Trump of mishandling some of the country's most sensitive secrets. Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Hayden O’Bryne on Wednesday moved to dismiss the appeal against Trump's former co-defendants in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Trump pleaded not guilty in 2023 to 40 criminal counts -- including violations of nine separate federal laws -- for allegedly holding on to classified documents after leaving the White House in 2021 and thwarting investigators' efforts to retrieve the documents from his Mar-a-Lago estate.

The Justice Department on Wednesday abandoned all criminal proceedings against the two co-defendants of President Donald Trump in the Florida classified documents case, wiping out any legal peril the pair could have faced. Trump valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira were charged with conspiring with Trump to obstruct an FBI investigation into the hoarding of classified documents that the Republican took with him when he left the White House after his first term. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case, in July, saying that the prosecutor who brought it, special counsel Jack Smith, had been illegally appointed by the Justice Department. Smith’s team ended its case against Trump after his November election win, citing longstanding department policy that says sitting presidents cannot be indicted.

The Justice Department moved on Wednesday to terminate its case against President Donald Trump‘s two co-defendants in Florida, a reversal after the department, under special counsel Jack Smith, had attempted to keep the classified documents charges against the pair alive. A Florida-based federal prosecutor filed the brief motion asking the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to toss out its appeal in the case. Smith had withdrawn his charges against Trump after he won the election, but the former special counsel kept intact Walt Nauta’s and Carlos De Oliveira’s charges of obstructing a federal investigation. Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case against all three of the defendants earlier this year, issuing an unconventional ruling that Smith was an illegitimate special counsel. Smith was in the process of appealing the ruling with the 11th Circuit at the time of Trump’s election victory, but that appeal effort is now over.