The Biden Department of Justice (DOJ)’s special counsel, Jack Smith, prosecuting former President Donald J. Trump in Florida and Washington, D.C., may have violated legal ethics in his pursuit of the Palm Beach-based classified documents case. New court filings by attorneys for Trump‘s co-defendant, Walt Nauta, indicate that Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) search warrants may have been obtained through violations of attorney-client privilege.
“The affiants used attorney-client violations as the basis for evidentiary allegations, but the SCO [Special Counsel’s Office] cannot use information it gathers improperly to justify a search warrant or as evidence against a third party,” the filing reads. Nauta‘s attorneys argue that “from start to finish, the process leading to the searches at issue was vitiated by constitutional violations that warrant suppression.”
Nauta’s attorneys additionally assert that the FBI mischaracterized his statements to the grand jury in sworn warrant affidavits, allowing them to claim that he lied during their investigation.
Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, presiding over the documents case, vacated the May 20, 2024 trial start date. She cited numerous ongoing motions and concerns over the conduct of the Special Counsel’s Office during the investigation. Jack Smith admitted that some of the documents retrieved from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence are actually out of sequence, which could cause delays in the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) review process.
The newest allegations, leveled by the attorneys for Walt Nauta, suggest that Smith‘s team used inadmissible evidence before the grand jury to intimidate Nauta into compliance and secure the indictments. Concerns over evidence tampering and ethical breaches by Smith will likely delay the trial until well after the 2024 presidential election.