Prosecutors raise another possible attorney representation issue in Trump documents case

By CNN Newsource

Published August 16, 2023 6:15 PM

By Katelyn Polantz, CNN Reporter, Crime and Justice

(CNN) — Prosecutors from the special counsel’s office have raised ethical questions about the attorney representing one of Donald Trump’s co-defendants in the Mar-a-Lago documents criminal case, marking the second time they’ve raised potential issues about lawyers representing multiple people who’ve worked for the former president.

The prosecutors told Judge Aileen Cannon in a filing on Wednesday that John Irving, the lawyer for Mar-a-Lago property manager and Trump co-defendant Carlos De Oliveira, also represents three possible witnesses who could be called to testify against him at trial.

Prosecutors previously raised a similar issue about Trump’s other co-defendant in the case, his personal aide Walt Nauta, being represented by Stanley Woodward – a lawyer who, like Irving, has taken on a handful of clients in the federal investigation who are still backed by Trump. Both lawyers have received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Trump’s Save America PAC for their legal work.

In the filing Wednesday, prosecutors say Irving represents a receptionist, a Trump aide and a Mar-a-Lago maintenance worker, in addition to De Oliveira, who also handled maintenance tasks at the Florida club and is accused of trying to get surveillance footage of the movement of boxes with documents in them deleted and lying to investigators.

Prosecutors explained how one of the witnesses Irving also represents could testify about a possible false statement De Oliveira made to investigators in an interview in April.

“In particular, when confronted with video footage appearing to show [De Oliveira] photographing surveillance cameras in the tunnel at Mar-a-Lago near the storage room where the FBI recovered some of the classified records, De Oliveira claimed he was (1) looking for a shutoff valve because a water pipe had ruptured on the grounds of Mar-a-Lago, and (2) documenting a broken door below one of the cameras. Witness 1 has information about when the pipe broke and the door needed repairs that is inconsistent with De Oliveira’s statements,” the prosecutors wrote.

“Witness 1 also has information about De Oliveira’s loyalty to Trump and about De Oliveira’s involvement in the replacement of a lock—at the direction of Trump—on a closet inside Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago on June 2, 2022, the day Nauta and De Oliveira moved boxes.”

De Oliveira, Nauta and Trump have pleaded not guilty to the charges they face.