(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Justice, now under new leadership following Donald Trump’s inauguration, has moved to drop its appeal of the classified documents case that once accused Trump of mishandling some of the country’s most sensitive secrets.
Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Hayden O’Bryne on Wednesday moved to dismiss the appeal against Trump’s former co-defendants in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Trump pleaded not guilty in 2023 to 40 criminal counts — including violations of nine separate federal laws — for allegedly holding on to classified documents after leaving the White House in 2021 and thwarting investigators’ efforts to retrieve the documents from his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Along with longtime aide Walt Nauta and staffer Carlos De Oliveira, Trump pleaded not guilty in a superseding indictment to allegedly attempting to delete Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage.
In July, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon — who Trump appointed to the bench — dismissed the indictments, deeming that special counsel Jack Smith had been unconstitutionally appointed.
While Smith appealed Cannon’s decision, he was forced to drop the appeal against Trump after Trump won the November election, due to a longstanding policy against prosecuting sitting presidents. However, Smith continued to pursue the appeal against Nauta and De Oliveira prior his resignation earlier this month.
The DOJ’s motion to drop the appeal signals an end to its prosecution of Nauta and De Oliveira.
Cannon on Tuesday cited the DOJ’s ongoing appeal against Nauta and De Oliveira in her decision to block the release of Smith’s final report on the case to select members of Congress.
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