0:01

It's Trump's trials from NPR. I'm Scott

0:03

Detrow. We love Trump! This is a

0:05

persecution. He actually just stormed out of

0:07

the courtroom. This is a persecution. Innocent

0:10

until proven guilty in a court

0:12

of law. As

0:14

we wait for former President Donald Trump's

0:17

New York criminal trial to resume with

0:19

closing arguments next week, we've got some

0:21

news out of Florida and Georgia. In

0:24

Florida, Judge Eileen Cannon held a

0:26

pre-trial hearing in the classified documents

0:28

case on two motions to dismiss.

0:31

They were filed by Trump's co-defendant

0:33

and aide, Walt Nada. Now remember,

0:35

Cannon, who was appointed by Trump,

0:37

recently delayed this trial indefinitely. Then

0:41

in Georgia, Trump is not the only

0:43

one on the ballot. Fulton County District

0:45

Attorney Fawny Willis and the judge overseeing

0:47

the election interference case, Scott McAfee, both

0:50

won their respective elections last night. This

0:53

is after a year where there was

0:55

an intense focus on Willis's personal relationships

0:57

and how they affected the Trump case,

0:59

as well as McAfee's ruling allowing her to

1:01

remain in charge of it. Stick

1:03

around and we will break down everything that happened

1:05

in that Florida courtroom and in that Georgia primary.

1:16

From the campaigns to the conventions, from

1:18

now through election day and beyond, the

1:20

NPR Politics Podcast has you covered. As

1:22

Joe Biden and Donald Trump square off

1:24

again, we bring you the latest news

1:27

from the trail and dive deep into

1:29

each candidate's goals for a second term.

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Listen to the NPR Politics Podcast every weekday.

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Terms and conditions may apply. You're

1:57

listening to Trump's Trials. I'm Scott Detrow and now

1:59

here's Ari. We've been hearing a

2:01

lot about Donald Trump's criminal trial in New York

2:03

for making hush money payments. Well,

2:05

while that one's on pause through the

2:08

long weekend, lawyers for Trump and two

2:10

co-defendants appeared in a Florida court today.

2:12

In that case, the former president is

2:14

charged with taking classified and top-secret material

2:16

to Mar-a-Lago when he left the White

2:19

House, then conspiring to hide those documents

2:21

from federal investigators. And Pierre's

2:23

Greg Allen is at the courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida.

2:25

Hey, Greg. Hi, Ari. Tell us what happened in

2:27

court today. Well, defense attorneys asked

2:29

U.S. District Judge Eileen Cannon to dismiss

2:32

the charges against their clients. They say

2:34

this case is politically motivated and that

2:36

the prosecution is, quote, selective

2:38

and vindictive. Former President Trump wasn't

2:40

here today, but he skipped the

2:42

session, but his two co-defendants were

2:44

here. The court heard two motions,

2:46

both filed by Trump's aide, Walt

2:48

Nauta. Nauta is charged with moving

2:50

boxes containing classified documents to different

2:52

locations at Mar-a-Lago in an alleged

2:54

attempt to hide them from

2:56

federal investigators and then lying about it

2:59

afterwards. Nauta's attorney, Stanley Woodward, told

3:01

the judge he believes his client is

3:03

being prosecuted because he refused to cooperate

3:05

with the government's case against his boss.

3:08

When Nauta refused to be a witness against

3:10

Trump, Woodward says prosecutors retaliated by, in his

3:12

words, shoehorning him into the indictment of the

3:14

former president. Judge Cannon, who's a Trump appointee

3:16

and has been criticized for some rulings in

3:19

favor of the defense, seemed skeptical today. She

3:21

said, isn't that a fairly standard way to

3:23

try to get attorneys to convince a client

3:25

to cooperate? Is there a running

3:27

theme here across these trials? It sounds like there were some testing

3:30

moments in the courtroom. Tell us about them. Yes,

3:33

nothing like wish on New York, but it's

3:35

much for us. There was a lot of

3:37

attention devoted to a meeting in August of

3:39

2022 between prosecutor Jay Bratt and Stanley Woodward,

3:42

who just came on as not his attorney.

3:44

Woodward said he was under consideration for a

3:46

federal judicial appointment at the time and that

3:48

Bratt mentioned it at the meeting. Woodward says

3:50

he believes it was intended to send him

3:53

a message that he should convince his client

3:55

to cooperate with the investigation or, in

3:57

his words, it could mess up his potential judgeship.

4:00

Prosecutor David Harbach, who was talking to the

4:02

judge about this, called that description of the

4:04

meeting a fantasy and that Brad's passing comments

4:06

were being taken out of context. He

4:08

became agitated at one point when Judge Cannon pressed

4:10

him on the issue, and she had

4:12

to admonish him to calm down. And

4:15

tell us about the motion to dismiss that was argued

4:17

today. What was that about? Well, the

4:20

motion involved all three codefendants, not as

4:22

lawyer Stanley Woodward made a technical argument,

4:24

as he termed it, that focuses on how

4:26

the indictment is worded. And he encouraged

4:28

the judge to throw out several counts.

4:31

One example were two counts in which

4:33

Nauda and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos de

4:35

Oliveira are charged with attempting to get

4:37

the club's IT supervisor to delete video

4:40

footage from surveillance cameras. The

4:42

IT guy said he couldn't do it and the footage

4:44

wasn't deleted. But because of that, Woodward

4:46

says no crime was committed. It was just

4:48

a conversation he said. It's not illegal to

4:50

talk about something. Prosecutors

4:53

say that was all part of the overall

4:55

conspiracy to obstruct the government investigation that

4:57

these are matters. In any case, the court should leave

4:59

to the jury to decide. Judge

5:01

Cannon didn't indicate on either of the motions, which

5:03

you'd have a ruling today. Can

5:05

you hear that siren there behind you? Let

5:07

me ask about timing because the trial was

5:09

supposed to have started this week. The judge

5:12

indefinitely postponed the start date. Any idea of

5:14

when it might actually get underway? No,

5:16

no sign of that at this point. There are

5:18

by my count nearly a dozen motions filed by

5:21

Trump's lawyers still pending before the court. The

5:23

judge has also yet has to

5:25

have important hearings on how classified material will

5:28

be handled. She says she's going

5:30

to take up that issue in July, which makes it

5:32

eight months behind schedule. And it's

5:34

beginning to look less and less likely that the trial

5:36

will begin before the presidential election. And

5:38

of course, if Trump wins because of the federal case,

5:40

he'd have the power to shut down the Department of

5:43

Justice case. Senator Harris Greg Allen

5:45

in Fort Pierce, Florida, thanks. You're

5:47

welcome. And now here's Layla Fottle.

5:49

The prosecutor and judge overseeing the

5:51

Georgia criminal case against former President

5:53

Donald Trump have both easily

5:55

defeated challengers in local elections.

5:57

Fulton County District Attorney Fannie

6:00

Willis won the Democratic primary yesterday, and

6:03

Judge Scott McAfee won a full term

6:05

on the bench. WABE's

6:07

Sam Greenglass reports from Atlanta.

6:09

Trump is facing criminal charges

6:11

in multiple jurisdictions, but in

6:13

the Georgia case, other key

6:15

players are also facing voters

6:17

this year. At

6:21

mutation brewing, McCarthy supporters mingled around

6:23

a bar decorated with stars and

6:25

stripes, sipping brews with names like

6:28

the Teddy Bruzabel as returns trickled

6:30

in. McAfee was 33 when

6:33

he was appointed to a vacancy on

6:35

the Fulton Superior Court. A few

6:37

months later, the court randomly assigned McAfee

6:39

the Trump case. Now that the

6:42

judge has won his first campaign, he says

6:44

he's ready to get back to his docket.

6:46

The message here that I'm getting is that

6:48

I need to get back to work, to

6:50

get back in the courtroom to keep doing

6:52

what we've been doing, which is to get

6:54

both sides of their fair day in court

6:56

to be treated with respect and to get

6:58

the job done. Despite pushback from their election

7:00

opponents over the Trump case, McAfee and Willis

7:02

were buoyed by their prominent roles in those

7:04

proceedings. Willis is the county's first

7:06

black woman DA and has become a

7:08

household name for prosecuting Trump. The

7:11

path has not always been easy. McAfee

7:13

allowed Willis to stay on Trump's case

7:16

if a prosecutor she'd had a relationship

7:18

with resigned. This month, an appeals

7:20

court agreed to review that decision,

7:22

further dimming chances of a trial

7:24

this year. At a

7:26

historic mansion, Willis celebrated her win with

7:29

a live band and flowing drinks. Every

7:31

now and then, you get to stop and smell the

7:33

roses, and tonight,

7:36

we gonna stop and smell these roses.

7:38

The DA drinking Grey Goose, in case anybody

7:41

wonder. While

7:43

McAfee has secured his seat

7:45

by winning his nonpartisan election,

7:47

Willis still faces a Republican

7:49

challenger this fall. That GOP

7:52

opponent served on Trump's Georgia legal

7:54

team after the 2020 election. In

7:57

her victory speech, Willis stressed her commitment.

8:00

commitment to equal justice despite her

8:02

critics. There is no one

8:04

above the law in this country,

8:07

nor is there anyone beneath it. With

8:10

Tuesday's campaign wrapped up, the

8:12

Trump case chugs on. Pretrial

8:14

hearings continue next week. For

8:16

NPR News, I'm Sam Greenglass

8:18

in Atlanta. Thanks

8:22

for listening to Trump's Trials from NPR. Keep

8:24

an eye out for more episodes like this

8:26

whenever big news happens. And we'll be

8:28

back later this week with our Rekhaver show on

8:30

Saturday. I'm Scott Detro. On

8:45

this week's episode of Wild Card, actor

8:48

Chris Pine tells us it's okay not

8:50

to be perfect. My film got absolutely

8:52

decimated when it premiered, which brings up

8:54

for me one of my primary triggers

8:56

or whatever it was like not being

8:58

liked. I'm Rachel Martin, Chris Pine,

9:01

on how to find joy in imperfection.

9:03

That's on NPR's new podcast, Wild Card,

9:05

the game where cards control the conversation.

9:09

I'm Rachel Martin. You probably know how interview

9:12

podcasts with famous people usually go. There's a

9:14

host, a guest, and a light Q&A. But

9:17

on Wild Card, we have ripped up the

9:19

typical script. It's a new podcast from NPR,

9:21

where I invite actors, artists, and comedians to

9:23

play a game using a special deck of

9:26

cards to talk about some of life's biggest

9:28

questions. Listen to Wild Card, wherever you get

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your podcasts, only from NPR.