The judge overseeing Donald Trump's classified documents case should hold a hearing to discuss potential conflicts of interest among the lawyers involved in the proceedings, after a Mar-a-Lago employee flipped on the former president, a legal expert has said.
Legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance was reacting to news that Yuscil Taveras, an IT director at Trump's Florida resort, has retracted "his prior false testimony" and now says the former president and two others charged in the classified documents case, Trump aide Walt Nauta and maintenance worker Carlos De Oliveira, did take steps to delete security camera footage that had been sought by federal prosecutors.
Trump, Nauta and De Oliveira have pleaded not guilty to all the charges against them in the classified documents case, including obstruction allegations.
The change of testimony from Taveras, revealed in court filings on Tuesday, arrived after the IT worker switched lawyers from one paid for by Trump's PAC, Stanley Woodward, to one provided by the federal government.
Judge Aileen M. Cannon is being urged to hold a conflict of interest hearing after a key witnesses in the classified documents case flipped on Donald Trump. Southern District of Florida
Taveras implicating the former president happened after prosecutors working in Special Counsel Jack Smith's office had raised concerns that Woodward, who represents Nauta, may have a conflict of interest because he also represented Taveras, who was identified in the superseding indictment as "Trump Employee 4."
Prosecutors had also raised similar concerns about John Irving, who is defending De Oliveira in the classified documents case, as he also represents others who may be called as witnesses in the trial.
Vance said that Judge Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over the classified documents case, should now hold a hearing about the potential conflict of interests with Nauta's and De Oliveira's lawyers.
"Tonight we learned that Trump employee no. 4 (now id'd as Yuscil Taveras) 'flipped' & recanted his earlier testimony he knew nothing about efforts to tamper with security footage at [Mar-a-Lago] after a judge let [him] confer with a fed'l public defender instead of his Trump-funded lawyer," Vance posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Vance also shared a screengrab of her newsletter previously discussing the potential conflict of interest, noting how Woodward said he no longer represents Taveras and suggested Cannon could dismiss the evidence from the IT worker to avoid such a conflict.
"The last bit is a doozy—The lawyer said, 'no problem here,' just exclude the evidence my former client could offer & presto magic, no conflict. Now we know that's Taveras, who told the truth after he got a new lawyer. It's a 'remarkable' position, i.e legally unsupported," Vance added.
"If Judge Cannon refuses to hold a hearing & advise Trump's 2 co-defendants in the MAL case of the conflict, it would rival her earlier decisions for being so wrong legally, that there'd be serious consideration on appeal of her fitness to remain on the case."
Cannon previously faced calls to recuse herself from the classified documents case over concerns about her impartiality to Trump, as well as previous decisions which benefited the former president during the proceedings.
The issue surrounding Woodward and his legal advice while representing both Nauta and Taveras was also raised by federal prosecutors in the filings.
"Advising Trump Employee 4 to correct his sworn testimony would result in testimony incriminating Mr. Woodward's other client, Nauta; but permitting Trump Employee 4's false testimony to stand uncorrected would leave Trump Employee 4 exposed to criminal charges for perjury," they wrote.
Woodward has been contacted for comment via email.
De Oliveira is accused of seeking help from Taveras in order to delete security footage that had been requested by federal prosecutors via subpoena.
When Taveras testified before the grand jury in March 2023, he repeatedly denied or claimed not to recall any contacts or conversations about security footage at Mar-a-Lago, a claim prosecutors said was "false."
On July 5, Taveras informed a judge that he no longer wished to be represented by Woodward and requested that he be provided with a federal lawyer.
After receiving new counsel, Taveras "immediately" retracted his prior false testimony and "provided information that implicated Nauta, De Oliveira and Trump in efforts to delete security camera footage, as set forth in the superseding indictment," the court filings state.
Discussing the development in the classified documents case, former deputy assistant attorney general Harry Litman posted on X: "Imagine you're on the MAL jury. Taveras testifies he lied when he had the Trump-paid lawyer then switched lawyers and told the truth of the [defendant's] culpability.
"And Trump, Nauta, and De Oliveira all don't testify, as they won't. Now add the rest of the overwhelming evidence inc videos."
mystreetisadeadend on August 23rd, 2023 at 13:32 UTC »
This article is worth reading, because it's got some astonishing information about how corrupt this lawyer is.
First, he takes representation of a client that's funded by somebody else -- another defendant -- but then he actually works on behalf of the person paying him, not the client -- huge ethical violation #1.
Then he takes a second client/defendant in the same case, which is literally never done because there is almost always an actual or likely conflict between criminal defendants -- huge ethical violation #2.
But also there was a major actual conflict because the one client had evidence against the other client AND the person paying both their legal bills -- huge ethical violation #3
Then, as explained in the article, he is asking the judge to remove the conflict between the two client/defendants by excluding the evidence provided by his former client -- evidence which incriminates his remaining client AND the co-defendant who is paying him -- huge ethical violation #4, an ethical violation so brazen and borderline criminal that if this guy doesn't get his license yanked, the State Bar will be a total joke.
OppositeDifference on August 23rd, 2023 at 13:24 UTC »
Taveras changing his testimony the moment he switched to a government defense lawyer instead of Trump's makes it extremely clear that Trump is using a tried and true mob tactic. Offer to provide lawyers to all of your co-defendants, and then those lawyers work for a single outcome. Keep the boss out of jail. All of these co-defendants will be advised to withhold information and lie, and the goal is never going to be to give THEM the best outcome.
Anybody in any of these cases that has a lawyer being paid by someone else needs to understand that they aren't the lawyer's client.
SewAlone on August 23rd, 2023 at 12:26 UTC »
She's going to get herself kicked off this case eventually.