WASHINGTON — The special counsel prosecuting former President Trump for his alleged mishandling of government secrets has asked for a hearing to discuss whether the defense attorney for a co-defendant has a conflict of interest stemming from his multiple clients.
According to a court filing on Wednesday, attorney Stanley Woodward’s current and past clients include three people who could be called to testify against Walt Nauta, Trump’s aide who is charged with conspiring to obstruct the government’s efforts to reclaim classified documents.
Woodward’s clients include two aides who worked for Trump at the White House and into his post-presidency, and a Mar-a-Lago IT director identified as “Trump Employee 4” in the updated indictment. The Washington, D.C.-based lawyer also represents at least seven other people who have been questioned by prosecutors in the case. He declined to comment when reached by NBC News.
Trump’s Save America PAC has spent $20 million on legal fees in the first half of this year, according to FEC filings. Woodward’s firm was paid more than $200,000 in the first six months of the year.
In defending Nauta, Woodward may need to cross-examine a witness with whom he has had privileged discussions, which raises the risk of an “attorney’s improper use or disclosure of the client’s confidences during the cross-examination,” or “may cause the attorney to pull his punches during cross-examination, perhaps to protect the client’s confidences or ‘to advance the attorney’s own personal interest,’” the motion filed by special counsel Jack Smith’s office argues.
The hearing is “appropriate given that an attorney who cross-examines a former or present client inherently encounters divided loyalties,” prosecutors wrote in the filing.
“Employee 4, who is unnamed in the indictment but was identified by NBC News as Yuscil Taveras, secured a new lawyer in July, and did not waive the conflict, according to the motion. Roughly three weeks later, a grand jury charged Trump, Nauta, and Carlos De Oliveira, a Mar-a-Lago property manager, over their efforts to have Taveras delete Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage.
Prosecutors told Woodward earlier this year that they believed Taveras had information that would incriminate Nauta, and that representing both clients at the same time raised a potential conflict of interest. Woodward said he advised both clients of the government’s position, but that he was unaware of anything the employee could say to incriminate Nauta and did not see a conflict, according to the filing.
Counsel for Trump and De Oliveira, the newly charged property manager who appeared for the first time before a federal judge on Monday, did not weigh in with a position when the government notified them in advance of the request.
The process, known as a Garcia hearing, is not unusual, but it adds a new complication in a case where a handful of lawyers are representing Trump and other individuals.
“This is a problem when you represent multiple people,” said Mark Schnapp, a longtime Miami criminal defense attorney and former federal prosecutor in South Florida. “In an optimal world, you represent people in multiple representations where none of them get indicted. But it happens.”
By asking for a Garcia hearing, Schnapp said the special counsel is moving to address what could be an issue down the line.
“Let’s assume it went to trial and the government did nothing, and then Nauta said on appeal, ‘Look, I didn’t get a fair trial,’” said Schnapp. “They’re doing the right thing by getting it on the record as to whether it’s a waivable conflict. This way, they knock out a potential issue from appeal.”
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