Judge Aileen Cannon of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida issued an order on Monday in which she criticized the Department of Justice (DOJ) for handling the case concerning former President Donald Trump’s classified documents.
Cannon instructed Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith to provide two documents and a legal explanation for the grand jury inquiry in Washington, D.C., related to the case concerning classified data.
The Special Counsel has argued that protecting the grand jury’s secrecy requires keeping the supplement secret. Cannon ruled that insufficient legal and factual foundation was shown in the motion and supplement to justify keeping the materials under seal.
According to Cannon’s judgment, the response must also discuss whether or not it is permissible to use a grand jury sitting in another district to conduct further investigation and/or request post-indictment hearings on matters related to the present indictment in this district. This is one of the issues raised in the Motion, and it, along with the others, must be addressed in the answer.
This was in response to a Garcia hearing request by the special counsel, who wanted to discuss a possible conflict of interest between defense attorney Stanley Woodward’s representation of defendant Walt Nauta and prospective witnesses in the classified materials case.
On August 10, Trump and Nauta will make their first court appearance in the case regarding the classified documents. On July 27, Smith issued a superseding indictment that contained new claims against President Trump and a Mar-a-Lago employee named Carlos De Oliveira. De Oliveira allegedly helped Donald Trump relocate boxes around his Florida estate.
On Tuesday, Smith presented Trump with an indictment for his role in the violence that broke out in the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and for contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election.
At his hearing on Thursday in Washington, DC, the former president pleaded not guilty to the most current allegations against him. He has accused his prosecutor, Smith, of being deranged.
