The judge overseeing the classified documents case against Donald Trump asked prosecutors to explain why they used two grand juries in Florida and Washington D.C. Prosecutors had been questioning witnesses before a grand jury in D.C. for months before charges were filed in Florida. Prosecutors said the grand juries continued investigating further obstructive activity after the initial indictment. The judge also wants prosecutors to explain a potential conflict of interest issue regarding one of the defendant’s attorneys who has represented multiple witnesses in the case. This raises the possibility the attorney may need to cross-examine his own clients during the trial.
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Trump and two aides — Waltine “Walt” Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira — were charged this summer in a 42-count indictment that accuses the former president of improperly retaining 32 classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida residence and private club, and seeking to thwart government attempts to retrieve them.
Prosecutors included that revelation in a motion asking the judge to consider holding a hearing to determine whether Nauta’s attorney has too many conflicts of interest to provide his client with adequate legal advice.
At the hearing, prosecutors said Cannon should inform Nauta and the two witnesses, whose names have not been made public, of their legal rights and the potential conflicts their attorney poses.
Cannon said Nauta’s lawyers are expected to respond to the judge’s question about the two grand jury locations and the prosecutors’ request for the Garcia hearing.
Trump also has pending civil matters including a lawsuit in New York brought against him by E. Jean Carroll, an advice columnist who in 2019 accused him of sexually assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room.
Kaplan on Monday dismissed a set of counterclaims Trump filed against Carroll for calling him a rapist on TV after the jury found him liable for sexual abuse, not rape.