DOJ finishes taking out Trump’s classified document trash
The Department of Justice on Wednesday announced it is dropping its appeal against Donald Trump’s two codefendants in the classified documents case, officially letting two men who allegedly conspired with Trump to impede the government’s investigation into Trump’s willful mishandling of the country’s secrets off the hook.
Walt Nauta, who has served as Trump’s valet, and Carlos De Oliveira, a property manager at Mar-a-Lago, were both indicted in 2023 and charged with conspiring with Trump to withhold classified documents.
The DOJ accused Nauta of helping Trump hide boxes of classified documents from federal investigators. The DOJ also accused Nauta and De Oliveira of deleting video footage of the documents being moved around at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
Federal District Judge Aileen Cannon, who worked her hardest to delay the case against Trump and his codefendants, ultimately dismissed it in July with a ridiculous ruling that special counsel Jack Smith, who sought the indictments, was illegally appointed.
The DOJ was appealing the dismissal of Nauta and De Oliveria’s case, but now that Trump won and installed yes-men, it dropped that appeal.
“The United States of America moves to voluntarily dismiss its appeal with prejudice. The government has conferred with counsel for Appellees Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, who do not object to the voluntary dismissal,” U.S. Attorney Hayden P. O’Byrne wrote in a filing on Wednesday.
This is the final nail in the coffin of ever holding Trump and his codefendants accountable in federal court for flagrantly breaking the law by taking classified documents from the White House and refusing to give them back.
The DOJ already pulled this case—as well as the case accusing Trump of trying to steal the 2020 election—citing the precedent that the DOJ cannot prosecute a sitting president.
Of course, Trump is and always will be a convicted felon, after he was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments he made to a Playboy model and a porn actress to keep them from going public about sexual affairs he carried out with both women.