PODCAST: Is Trump Trying to Delay His Valet’s Trial Until After the Election?: Legal analysts wonders

Trump’s Defense Strategy: Delay, Delay, Delay

Trump’s legal team is delaying the case against his valet, Walt Nauta, by refusing to provide him with Florida counsel.

Former FBI deputy director Andy McCabe and legal expert Dr. Allison Gill discussed this on episode 31 of the “Jack” podcast. They pointed out that it had been two weeks since Nauta appeared in court and was told to get a Florida lawyer to vouch for his out-of-state lawyer, Stanley Woodward.

McCabe argued that it’s clear Trump wants to deal with his trial after the 2024 election. Judge Aileen Cannon already set a date for Aug. 2023, but some legal analysts think it might get started in Dec. 2023 or even as late as next spring.

All of those dates are early enough that McCabe thinks Trump can’t make a reasonable argument that he’d be campaigning and that the trial should be pushed back until after the election.

Gill pointed out that the Justice Department has put together a “very aggressive calendar” for the pre-trial CIPA conference, which will sift through all of the classified information. The deadline for Trump’s reply is July 6.

“But now, Walt Nauta still doesn’t have Florida counsel to sponsor his lawyer Stanley Woodward,” Gill continued.

“Yeah, it’s ridiculous,” McCabe chuckled. “The guy has had two weeks. He had his first non-arraignment on June 13. And then he was supposed to come back two weeks later with an attorney in Florida. They have attorneys in Florida. I’ve been to Florida, and I’ve seen attorneys advertising all over the highway. All he needs to do is call one of those dudes, bring him in for the purpose of admitting his real attorney, which is just to support what’s called the pro hac vice motion, which is when your real attorney is from a different state. You have to have an attorney from the state where the trial is happening go before the court and say, ‘I nominate this guy. Real attorney to be admitted to this Bar, in this case, Florida, pro hac vice just for the purpose of this case.'”

Gill wondered why Trump’s lawyer, Bruce Castor, couldn’t do it since he’d already done it for the former president. Trump is paying for Nauta’s legal fees.

“It’s because — his only defense here is to delay,” said Gill. “And now they’ve set his third try at arraignment. I don’t know why they don’t just appoint a public defender and use that.”

“Yeah, get it done,” McCabe agreed.

The new date is now also July 6, when Nauta has to be arraigned, which is also the day he has to turn in all of his CIPA responses.

“It just seems like Trump is trying to use the fact that Nauta doesn’t have counsel to delay the CIPA hearing,” Gill asserted. “That’s the only thing I can come up with. This is just — it seems ridiculous, and I don’t understand why any of these Magistrate judges are not just appointing a public defender to sponsor Stanley Woodward pro hac vice, so they can get this ball rolling. But we know, and Trump knows, that the longer this goes on, the more reasonable it is for him to ask for a delay for after the election.”

McCabe agreed, calling it a “passive-aggressive” way to stop the case from moving forward.

In conclusion, it appears that Trump’s legal team is deliberately delaying the case against his valet, Walt Nauta, in order to give him more time to build his defense or to ask for a delay until after the 2024 election.

Listen to the “Jack” podcast with McCabe and Gill here.