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Justice Department moves to drop prosecution of Mar-a-Lago staff in Trump classified docs case
By Breanne Deppisch
Published January 29, 2025
The Justice Department filed a motion Wednesday to drop all criminal proceedings against two former Trump co-defendants charged in the special counsel's classified documents case, putting a final end to the probe more than two years after it began.
The request for the charges to be dropped was filed Wednesday by the acting U.S. attorney in Miami, Hayden O’Byrne, without explanation.
The co-defendants, Carlos De Oliveira, a Mar-a-Lago property manager, and Walt Nauta, a valet at the property, were charged alongside President Donald Trump in the classified documents case led by former Special Counsel Jack Smith.
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Special Counsel Jack Smith arrives to offer remarks on an indictment including four felony counts against former President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Smith was tapped by Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022 to investigate both the alleged effort by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election, as well as his keeping of allegedly classified documents at his Florida residence after leaving the White House.
Both investigations were halted shortly after Trump won election for the second time in 2024, in keeping with long-standing Justice Department policy against investigating a sitting president.
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Photos from Mar-a-Lago that were included in the special counsel indictment of former President Donald Trump. (U.S. Department of Justice)
But the charges against Nauta and De Oliveira still stood.
Attorneys for two of Trump's former co-defendants in the classified documents case filed an emergency motion to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to block the report's publication earlier this year, alleging that their civilian clients would "irreparably suffer harm" as a result of its release.
A U.S. Coast Guard boat patrols outside the Mar-a-Lago Club on Nov. 8, 2024, across from West Palm Beach, Florida. ( Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
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Both had been charged with conspiring with Trump to obstruct an investigation, and making false statements to the FBI.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/justice-department-moves-drop-prosecution-mar-a-lago-staff-trump-classified-docs-case