Prosecutors say witness in Trump’s classified documents case retracted false testimony

WASHINGTON — A witness within the legal case in opposition to Donald Trump over the hoarding of categorized paperwork retracted “prior false testimony” after switching legal professionals final month and offered new data that implicated the previous president, the Justice Division stated Tuesday.

The statements from the witness, a Trump staffer recognized in court docket papers because the director of data know-how at Mar-a-Lago, was introduced to prosecutors weeks earlier than particular counsel Jack Smith secured an up to date indictment accusing Trump and two others in a plot to delete surveillance video on the Florida property.

Prosecutors stated in a court docket submitting Tuesday that the witness informed a grand jury in Washington in March that he couldn’t recall any conversations in regards to the safety footage

However in July, after being warned by prosecutors that he was a goal of the investigation and after being suggested that his lawyer might need a battle of curiosity due to his illustration of others within the probe, the witness obtained a brand new legal professional from the federal defender’s workplace and offered the Justice Division with data that helped type the premise of the revised indictment in opposition to Trump, his valet Walt Nauta and a 3rd defendant, Carlos De Oliveira, the court docket submitting says.

Prosecutors described the witness interplay in a submitting that seeks a listening to in Florida about potential conflicts of curiosity involving the protection lawyer, Stanley Woodward, who additionally represents Nauta. Woodward declined to remark Tuesday to The Related Press.

“The goal letter to Trump Worker 4 crystallized a battle of curiosity arising from Mr. Woodward’s concurrent illustration of Trump Worker 4 and Nauta,” prosecutors wrote.

They added: “Advising Trump Worker 4 to right his sworn testimony would lead to testimony incriminating Mr. Woodward’s different shopper, Nauta; however allowing Trump Worker 4’s false testimony to face uncorrected would go away Trump Worker 4 uncovered to legal fees for perjury.”

Within the submitting, the Justice Division additionally sought to clarify its use of grand juries in each Washington and Florida, the place fees had been finally filed. U.S. District Choose Aileen Cannon, a Florida decide presiding over the case, had earlier requested in regards to the authorized propriety of utilizing grand juries in each districts.

Prosecutors stated they continued utilizing the Washington grand jury even after fees had been filed in Florida for the categorical function of investigating potential false statements by witnesses in Washington. The Washington grand jury accomplished its time period final week, they stated.

A trial has been set for Could 20, 2024, within the categorized paperwork case. Trump has pleaded not responsible and denied any wrongdoing.

Trump is going through one other prosecution by Smith, over efforts to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election, in addition to a legal case in Georgia over makes an attempt to subvert that state’s vote and one other in New York in reference to hush cash funds to a porn actor.

_____

Comply with Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP