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Left: Former President Donald Trump speaks at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., June 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File). Right: Special counsel Jack Smith speaks about an indictment of former President Donald Trump, Aug. 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin). Inset: Judge Aileen M. Cannon. (U.S. Senate)
Special counsel Jack Smith must immediately turn over contested information to former President Donald Trump, the judge overseeing the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case ruled in a late Friday order.
In the paperless order posted on the federal docket, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon directed the government to provide the 45th president, along with co-defendants Waltine Nauta, Trump’s longtime butler, and Carlos De Oliveira, Mar-a-Lago’s property manager, access to a certain exhibit — while allowing the special counsel to file the disputed exhibit under seal for the time being.
“Upon in camera review of the subject attachment, and mindful of the disfavored nature of ex parte proceedings, the Court reaffirms the Special Counsel’s request to seal the attachment referenced in the Special Counsel’s Motion for Leave but finds an insufficient basis provided to deviate from the adversarial process in this instance,” the court order reads. “The Special Counsel is directed to transmit the exhibit to Defendants on or before February 10, 2024. The exhibit shall remain sealed pending further Court order.”
On Feb. 7, the government filed a motion to seal the exhibit and to file it ex parte — essentially requesting permission to enter the exhibit into the court record for potential-and-likely later use and without the defendants having specific knowledge of its exact contents.
The motion submitted by the government did, however, reference the contents of the exhibit in general terms.
“The exhibit describes in some detail threats that have been made over social media to a prospective Government witness and the surrounding circumstances, and the fact that those threats are the subject of an ongoing federal investigation being handled by a United States Attorney’s Office,” the government argued. “Disclosure of the details and circumstances of the threats risks disrupting the investigation. Means short of sealing the exhibit, e.g., redaction of persons’ names, will not suffice to protect the integrity of the investigation because even with such names redacted, the details of the exhibit could reveal investigative methods, potentially further endanger the victim, and/or provide information to the suspect to which he/she may not otherwise be entitled.”
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On Thursday, the court temporarily granted the request for the exhibit to be filed under seal and ex parte. The court quickly revisited that finding after reviewing the exhibit in her chambers.
The motion and proposed order is directly related to an ongoing, broader fight in the Southern District of Florida. That dispute has the state on one side and the defendants and Cannon on the other over a large set of discovery materials requested by the defense.
The court has previously ruled the government must file those documents with minimal redactions — denying requests from prosecutors to seal or redact the names of government witnesses in some of the materials they have already given to defense attorneys.
Earlier on Friday, Cannon paused her order after Smith, in a 22-page motion for reconsideration and stay, termed the court’s decision to publicly reveal those names “clear error.” The court’s pause gives defense attorneys until Feb. 23 to respond.
The exhibit in question, which Trump and Nauta’s attorneys should have access to by the end of Saturday, is an attachment to the government’s motion for reconsideration.
Brandi Buchman contributed to this report.
