A key witness in the case accusing former President Donald Trump of mishandling classified documents after leaving office has entered into a deal with prosecutors to provide testimony, his former attorney said in a Wednesday court filing. The Associated Press has the story:
Witness in Trump docs case reached deal with prosecutors
Newslooks- WASHINGTON, (AP)
A key witness in the case accusing former President Donald Trump of mishandling classified documents after leaving office has entered into a deal with prosecutors to provide testimony, his former attorney said in a Wednesday court filing.
The deal was reached after U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office threatened to prosecute the witness, who is the head of information technology at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Florida resort, for lying to a grand jury, the attorney, Stanley Woodward, said in the filing.
An information technology director at Mar-a-Lago struck a cooperation agreement with federal prosecutors last summer in their investigation of Donald Trump’s retention of classified documents at the former president’s Florida property, according to the worker’s ex-lawyer.
Stanley Woodward, a former attorney for the IT manager, made the revelation in a court filing responding to Justice Department arguments that he had a potential conflict-of-interest because of his representation of another key figure in the Mar-a-Lago probe, Trump valet Walt Nauta.
Woodward currently represents Walt Nauta, one of the two Trump employees also charged in the documents case, in addition to having previously represented the IT head, who is not named in Wednesday’s filing.
Prosecutors have said the employee is likely to testify at trial, posing a potential conflict of interest for Woodward, who will face the prospect of a former client testifying against a current client.
A cooperation agreement generally requires an individual to assist a criminal investigation in exchange for not being prosecuted. In this case, the worker testified before a federal grand jury that in July returned an updated indictment against Trump, Nauta and another Mar-a-Lago employee, Carlos De Oliveira, accusing the men of conspiring to delete surveillance footage from the property. All three have pleaded not guilty.
The indictment alleges that De Oliveira, Mar-a-Lago’s property manager, told the IT director — identified in court papers as Trump Employee 4 — that “the boss” wanted surveillance footage deleted. The Justice Department does not allege that the footage was actually deleted, and in fact, security video alleged to show Nauta moving boxes in and out of a storage room forms a critical accusation in the indictment.
Woodward has not opposed the request for U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over the case, to hold a hearing on the issue. But he suggested in Wednesday’s filing that prosecutors’ handling of the IT manager’s testimony was improper.
The case is one of four criminal prosecutions of Trump, who leads the field seeking the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the 2024 election.
Prosecutors previously said that the witness, who has been identified by media outlets as Yuscil Taveras, had information about efforts by Trump’s personal aide Nauta and others to obstruct the classified documents investigation.
Taveras’ current attorney had no immediate comment.
Special counsel Jack Smith’s team said in a court filing last month that the IT director had retracted “prior false testimony” after being advised last summer of a potential conflict because of Woodward’s representation of Nauta. He then switched lawyers and provided new and incriminating information in the run-up to the new, or superseding, indictment in July, prosecutors have said.
Woodward, in a court filing this week, rejected that version of events, saying he had welcomed the opportunity for his client to have a new lawyer from the federal defender’s office and that the client had been offered a cooperation agreement immediately after saying that he wanted to switch attorneys.
He also said that his client had explicitly said that he had not been coached to testify in any way that was false.
Prosecutors have charged Trump, Nauta and a third Mar-a-Lago employee, Carlos De Oliveira, with trying to thwart government efforts to retrieve sensitive documents taken to the Florida resort after Trump left office. All three have pleaded not guilty.
A spokesperson for Smith’s office declined to comment. Woodward declined to comment.
Prosecutors said in an August court filing that the witness initially denied any knowledge of obstruction. After receiving a letter from the special counsel’s office threatening him with prosecution, he dropped Woodward as his attorney and then detailed alleged efforts to delete security camera footage at Mar-a-Lago, they said.
Woodward rejected prosecutors’ account in Wednesday’s filing, saying the IT employee provided new testimony to the grand jury only after being offered a non-prosecution deal, which was reached after he was no longer representing the employee.
