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       lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
       
       
       ARTICLE VIEW: 
       
       Judge rejects efforts by Trump’s co-defendants to get obstruction
       charges tossed in classified documents case
       
       By Tierney Sneed and Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN
       
       Updated: 
       
       7:00 PM EDT, Thu April 18, 2024
       
       Source: CNN
       
       Special counsel Jack Smith’s obstruction case in the classified
       documents prosecution survived an early test, with a federal judge on
       Thursday denying several bids by ’s co-defendants to dismiss charges
       against them.
       
       Judge Aileen Cannon rejected Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira to toss
       obstruction charges they faced. Nauta works as Trump’s personal
       valet, and De Oliveira has worked as property manager at Trump’s
       Florida Mar-a-Lago estate.
       
       Cannon’s 8-page ruling means that those charges will continue to
       march toward trial.
       
       The Florida judge still has yet to decide several motions by Trump to
       toss charges against him in connection with allegedly mishandling
       classified documents and attempting to thwart the Justice
       Department’s investigation.
       
       All three men have pleaded not guilty.
       
       Attorneys for De Oliveira argued that the obstruction charges he faced
       should be dismissed because he was not aware of the grand jury
       subpoenas issued for classified documents kept at Mar-a-Lago when he
       allegedly moved boxes around the resort. They also said that the false
       statements charge against him should be tossed because the FBI
       interview of him was not clear enough and agents’ questions were not
       relevant to their investigation.
       
       Cannon disagreed, saying those arguments were better suited to go
       before a trial jury. The indictment “provides sufficient details”
       about the allegations against De Oliveira to allow the case to
       continue, she wrote, and “whatever deficiencies may exist with
       respect to the manner of questioning during the interview (and any
       confusion or ambiguity stemming therefrom) is a matter for trial.”
       
       As for Nauta, Cannon wrote that she was not persuaded by his claims
       that the charges he faces are legally flawed.
       
       Nauta is accused of assisting the former president in his alleged
       efforts to hide boxes of classified documents from a Trump attorney who
       was collecting them for a grand jury subpoena and of making false
       statements to investigators probing the documents’ whereabouts. His
       attorneys argued that ongoing disagreements among judges over the
       meaning of the word “corruptly” in the obstruction statute made the
       charges against him unconstitutionally vague.
       
       Cannon said that Nauta’s arguments were “worthy of serious
       consideration, but it does not lead this Court to conclude that
       dismissal of the obstruction counts is warranted.”
       
       The judge also denied Nauta’s and De Oliveira’s requests to get
       more information from prosecutors about the allegations against them.
       
       This story has been updated with additional details.
       
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