Judge rejects Trump co-defendants' request to dismiss charges in documents case
A federal judge rejected efforts from former President Trump’s two co-defendants in the Mar-a-Lago case to toss the charges against them.
The order from Judge Aileen Cannon rejects various motions from Trump valet Walt Nauta and property manager Carlos de Oliveira.
Both men are facing charges in the case related to helping Trump move boxes across Mar-a-Lago in order to conceal them from law enforcement, as well as Trump’s own attorney.
Cannon rejected efforts from both men to get a more detailed breakdown of the claims they face, writing that she “cannot say that the Indictment as a whole lacks sufficient information to assist Nauta in preparing for trial.”
She also determined that arguments they were unaware of the content of the boxes were not grounds for dismissing the case but rather were arguments the two should be prepared to make at trial.
“Any particular challenges to the Special Counsel’s evidentiary showing can be made at trial, where the Special Counsel will bear the entire burden of proof as to all essential elements of the obstruction offenses,” she wrote.
Cannon’s decision on the effort to dismiss the case from Trump’s two co-defendants comes as she has failed to make a decision on numerous motions from the former president asking her to toss the case.