US court drops documents case against Trump associates, final step in legal saga

WASHINGTON – A US court on Feb 11 granted prosecutors’ request to drop the criminal case against two associates of President Donald Trump who were accused of obstructing a probe into his mishandling of classified documents, marking the end of the federal cases brought against Mr Trump while he was out of office.

The US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit approved dropping the case against Mr Trump’s valet Walt Nauta and property manager Carlos De Oliveira, who were charged alongside Mr Trump in a case accusing the US President of illegally retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home and social club. All three pleaded not guilty.

A lawyer for Mr Nauta, Mr Richard Klugh, said the decision “closes out a prosecution that was misguided and which should never have been filed”.

The charges were brought by former US special counsel Jack Smith, who also accused Mr Trump in a separate case of conspiring to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election.

Mr Smith dropped both cases after Mr Trump won the November election, citing a longstanding US Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.

At the time, prosecutors said they would continue the case against Mr Nauta and Mr De Oliveira, who faced obstruction charges.

But after Mr Trump took office, the acting US attorney in south Florida, who had taken over the case from Mr Smith, asked the appeals court to drop it.

Prosecutors asked the appeals court to intervene in 2024 after US District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was nominated to the bench by Mr Trump, dismissed the charges against Mr Trump and his two co-defendants, ruling that Mr Smith was unlawfully appointed as special counsel.

The court had not weighed in on that issue at the time prosecutors asked to drop the case. REUTERS