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Ever since Donald Trump’s documents case was assigned to Judge Aileen Cannon, we’ve been waiting for her to fuck it up somehow. We all remember last year when that loon swooped in and claimed jurisdiction over the warrant issued by Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart to search Mar-a-Lago. And we remember her getting unceremoniously slapped down by the 11th Circuit, paving the way for Special Counsel Jack Smith to bring the case in the Southern District of Florida.
So far, Judge Cannon has played this round more or less by the book. But this week there are signs that she’s is getting ready to bone this case the way we all expected her to do.
It started last week when the government moved for a Garcia hearing with respect to co-defendant Walt Nauta’s lawyer Stanley Woodward, Jr. When an attorney represents multiple parties or witnesses in the same case, the court will hold a Garcia hearing to ensure that the defendant is aware of any potential conflicts. Odds are good that this will join the many legal concepts that became a part of the vernacular thanks to Donald Trump’s legal shenanigans. Because there are not that many lawyers willing to associate themselves with Trumpland, and so each of them tends to represent multiple clients.
Woodward, who is being paid by Trump’s Save America PAC, has represented Peter Navarro, Dan Scavino, Kash Patel, and several January 6 defendants. And John Irving, the attorney for co-defendant Carlos De Oliveira, has represented Navarro, Stephen Miller, Rep. Scott Perry, and Cleta Mitchell, one of the lawyers on the call where Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find 11,780 votes.
According to the special counsel’s filing, Woodward “has represented at least seven other individuals who have been questioned in connection with the investigation.” One of those individuals is Yuscil Taveras, the Mar-a-Lago IT guy who allegedly refused De Oliveira’s imprecations to destroy the surveillance tapes at Trump’s behest. Approximately five seconds after Taveras found another lawyer, he flipped, so … make of that one what you will
Two other of Woodward’s clients are described thusly:
Witness 1 worked in the White House during Trump’s presidency and then subsequently worked for Trump’s post-presidential office in Florida. Mr. Woodward has represented Witness 1 in connection with this case and, to the Government’s knowledge, continues to do so.
Witness 2 worked for Trump’s reelection campaign and worked for Trump’s political action committee after Trump’s presidency ended. Mr. Woodward has represented Witness 2 in connection with this case and, to the Government’s knowledge, continues to do so.
Last week, the government requested a hearing at which Nauta and the two witnesses would be apprised of the potential conflict inherent in having a lawyer cross examine a witness to whom he owes a duty of confidentiality. They filed two documents under seal in support of their motion for Garcia hearing. Trump and De Oliveira said they had no objection to the government’s motion.
All of this is totally normal. What happened after was not.
Yesterday Judge Cannon struck those sealed filings from the docket in a truly bizarre order.
“The Special Counsel states in conclusory terms that the supplement should be sealed from public view ‘to comport with grand jury secrecy,’ but the motion for leave and the supplement plainly fail to satisfy the burden of establishing a sufficient legal or factual basis to warrant sealing the motion and supplement,” she wrote.
Now, to be clear, we don’t know what’s in those filings Judge Cannon just disappeared from this case. But grand jury proceedings are definitionally secret, and if the filings contain transcripts or characterization of the witness’s testimony, it would appear that sealing them was a totally uncontroversial request.
Judge Cannon went on to direct the defendants to brief the issue of the requested hearing, strongly implying that they ought to challenge the “propriety” of a parallel grand jury in DC:
Waltine Nauta shall file a response to the Motion for a Garcia hearing [ECF No. 97] on or before August 17, 2023. Among other topics as raised in the Motion, the response shall address the legal propriety of using an out-of-district grand jury proceeding to continue to investigate and/or to seek post-indictment hearings on matters pertinent to the instant indicted matter in this district. The Special Counsel shall respond to that discussion in a Reply in Support of the Motion, due on or before August 22, 2023. The remaining Defendants may, but are not required to, file briefs of their own related to the grand jury issue referenced herein, but any such briefs are due by August 17, 2023, and may be submitted in combined or individual fashion.
For a really thorough explanation of all the ways this order is weird, here’s a terrific column by the lawyer Adam Unikowsky. But briefly, Judge Cannon seems to be pissed that the government is citing evidence of the conflict kicked up by the grand jury in DC before the special counsel decided to charge Trump and Nauta in Florida. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this — indeed it would be inappropriate for the government not to disclose evidence of an actual conflict impairing the defendant’s rights, no matter what jurisdiction it emerged in. Trump and De Oliveira already said they don’t care, and Woodward could have objected on his own if he liked.
And yet, Judge Cannon seems to be stomping her foot and asking someone to give her a reason to slap the DOJ around and disappear even more evidence. Is she going to take the position that nothing from the DC grand jury can be used to predicate a charge in the Southern District of Florida? Because that would be fuckbonkers. And meanwhile, she hasn’t scheduled the Garcia hearing for Nauta.
So … that’s all crazy and worrisome. We’ll keep ya posted.
[US v. Trump, Docket via Court Listener]
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