Mar-a-Lago Property Manager Says Prosecutors Overplaying Potential Conflict Of Interesting In Docs Case

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.


Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos de Oliveira, who was charged in the classified documents case alongside former President Donald Trump, is claiming that Special Counsel Jack Smith was exaggerating a potential ethical conflict in their client’s defense.

“In short, not only is there a lack of an actual conflict, which the Government apparently concedes, there is a lack of a potential one, as well,” they said in a new court filing, CNN reported.

The matter was brought up by the prosecution earlier this month when they informed the judge that John Irving, one of De Oliveira’s attorneys, was representing three additional potential witnesses in the investigation who Smith’s team might potentially call to the stand at the trial the following year.

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Irving no longer represents the three people in question, who the prosecutors had referred to as a receptionist, a Trump aide, and a Mar-a-Lago maintenance worker, according to a new filing from De Oliveira’s legal team.

Additionally, according to De Oliveira’s attorneys, Irving was “unaware of any confidential information he obtained from any of those potential witnesses that could be used to cross-examine them.” Even if such information existed, they continued, cross-examinations could be conducted by Donnie Murrell, Irving’s recently hired co-counsel in the case, who “has never spoken with any of those individuals” and who “has obtained no confidential information from or about them.”

In order to ensure that De Oliveira’s constitutional right to counsel was upheld, the defense attorneys said they would not object if US District Judge Aileen Cannon conducted a hearing with him. However, only if it was done in secret and without the participation of the prosecutors. However, they rejected Smith’s suggestion that the three disputed witnesses be included in the hearing as well, arguing that there was “no need to parade the witnesses before the press so that the Court can make an inquiry of them.”

Before Cannon, there were two conflicts involving De Oliveira. Because Stanley Woodward has also represented other potential trial witnesses, the prosecution has also requested a hearing on any potential ethical issues surrounding his representation of Walt Nauta, a different co-defendant.

Trump, Nauta, and De Oliveira have all entered not-guilty pleas to the allegations.

Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team made another substantial court filing this week by providing an update on former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case. The filing noted that the Washington, D.C., grand jury finished its work last week.

“The disclosure of the grand jury’s completion on Aug. 17 was tucked into a footnote of a larger filing Smith’s lawyers submitted to the federal judge in South Florida who is now overseeing the indictment against the former president and co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira,” The Messenger reported.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing the case, invalidated two of Smith’s sealed filings.

Republicans in Florida have moved to protect Trump from what they believe is nothing more than a politically motivated charge.

Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, for instance, has threatened to call Smith before a congressional committee after the special counsel filed charges against Trump related to the Jan. 6 riot.

Gaetz took Smith to task, as well as fellow Republicans, after the filing.

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“House Republicans should immediately demand that Jack Smith present himself for a transcribed interview with the Judiciary Committee in the next 15 days.,” Gaetz said in a Newsmax interview he posted to YouTube.

“If he does not do that, we should send a subpoena. If he ignores the subpoena, we should hold him in criminal contempt of the Congress, so that he is the first prosecutor in American history to prosecute a case while himself under criminal contempt,” Gaetz added.

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