Justice Department drops classified documents case against Trump co-defendants

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

73% : Trump celebrated the move in a social media post."It
48% : “Given the very strong public interest in this criminal proceeding and the absence of any enforceable limits on the proposed disclosure, there is certainly a reasonable likelihood that review by members of Congress as proposed will result in public dissemination of all or part of Volume II,” she wrote.
45% : Carlos De Oliveira, Mar-a-Lago property manager, arrives at the courthouse in Fort Pierce, Fla., in 2023.Eva Maire Uzcategui / AFP - Getty Images fileThat guidance also resulted in Smith dropping his other case against Trump, which had charged him with conspiracy against the United States for his efforts to stay in power after losing the 2020 presidential election.
35% : Democrats on the Judiciary Committee had urged Garland to withdraw the appeal involving Nauta and De Oliveira before Trump took office so the attorney general could release the report.
33% : Trump, Nauta and De Oliveira all sought to block the release of the second volume of the report, which centered on the classified documents case.
32% : The Justice Department dropped its case against Trump after his election win, citing guidance from its Office of Legal Counsel that the executive branch agency cannot prosecute a sitting president — the person who heads the executive branch.
32% : Trump had no co-defendants in that case, and Smith's report on the matter was released earlier this month.
31% : Trump and his attorneys had vehemently opposed the release of the report, as had attorneys for Nauta and De Oliveira.
29% : Donald Trump and his aide Walt Nauta, right, in 2023.Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post via Getty Images fileU.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump nominee, had dismissed the case against then-presidential candidate Trump, his aide Nauta and Mar-a-Lago employee De Oliveira last year.
27% : The three had been charged with allegedly taking part in a scheme to help Trump retain highly classified documents that improperly remained in his possession after he left the White House in 2021 and with obstructing the ensuing federal investigation.
27% : Cannon added that the report, which she had reviewed, contains “detailed and voluminous” information outlining the case against Trump, much of which “has not been made public in court filings.”House
23% : Then-U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland had cited the pending appeal as the reason why he would not publicly release special counsel Jack Smith's report on the criminal case he'd brought against Trump, saying it could impact the due process rights of the co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira.
12% : Trump had complained at a rally in Nebraska in 2022 that the case against Fortenberry was "very unfair," according to the Nebraska Examiner.

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