Judge Cannon sides with Jack Smith in issuing new order to Trump co-defendant
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon granted a motion filed by special counsel Jack Smith Wednesday that would force one of Donald Trump's co-defendants to redact an upcoming filing in a classified documents case.
In a court document filed last month, Smith said he was concerned about "certain portions" of briefs that defendant Walt Nauta and Trump presented to the court. Smith contended that those portions of the briefs "require extensive redactions."
The filing noted that Nauta wrongly quoted and summarized issues that the court had ordered sealed.
"The Government does not object to the Court unsealing these docket entries, but until it does so, these portions of the Reply must be redacted," Smith wrote.
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"Throughout Nauta’s Motion to Suppress Reply, he includes the names of Government witnesses. The Government is seeking to redact their names and any pronouns revealing their gender," Smith concluded. "For the reasons stated above, the Government has satisfied its burden for these limited redactions."
In a paperless order on Wednesday, Cannon said she was partially granting Smith's motion.
"PAPERLESS ORDER granting in part the Special Counsel's Third Motion for Redactions 423 in accordance with the Court's prior Orders 474 492," the order read. "The Court expresses no opinion on any other requests contained in the Special Counsel's Motion. Signed by Judge Aileen M. Cannon."
Smith has been an advocate for redacting witness names and other sensitive information throughout the case against Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents.