Legal experts: Trump witness has “startling evidence” for jury — unless Judge Cannon “stalls” trial

A former Mar-a-Lago employee and key witness referenced in special counsel Jack Smith’s Florida indictment of Donald Trump over his handling of classified documents broke his silence Monday.   

Brian Butler, who’s referenced as “Trump Employee 5” six times in Smith’s indictment, spoke with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins about his account of the situation and the conduct he witnessed in his final years working at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort property. The ex-Trump valet has repeatedly spoken with prosecutors on Smith’s team and provided testimony to federal investigators. 

Asked about his decision to go public with his story now, Butler indicated, in part, that he wanted to tell voters the truth ahead of the 2024 presidential election in November given the GOP frontrunner’s frequent claims that his prosecutions are “politically motivated.” 

“I personally would just say I just don’t believe that he should be a presidential candidate at this time. I think it’s time to move on,” Butler said. “I think the American people have the right to know the facts, that this is not a witch hunt.”

Butler’s public interview makes clear that even some ex-Trump staffers are “appalled” by his alleged misconduct and “baseless attacks on the authorities,” Brookings senior fellow and CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen told Salon. 

Last summer, Trump was charged with 40 felony counts, including willful retention of documents, making false statements and obstruction of justice in Smith’s indictment. Trump aides Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira were also named as co-defendants in the indictment. All three have pleaded not guilty. 

In Monday’s interview, Butler recalled a number of specifics that could deal a blow to the defendants, including details of his unknowing involvement with the movement of classified documents and close-knit friendship with De Oliveira.

Those details present him as an “ideal” and “credible” witness with “essential evidence” that is “a core building block in the DOJ’s case against Trump,” Temidayo Aganga-Williams, former senior investigative counsel for the House Jan. 6th committee, told Salon.

“The witness was clearly telling the truth, and his credibility and his honest demeanor stood out to me, particularly because he’s somebody that worked for Trump, that was formerly in Trump’s orbit, was in a firsthand position to see wrongdoing and has absolutely startling evidence to share,” Eisen added.

Butler worked at Mar-a-Lago for more than 20 years but left the job in November 2022, three months after the FBI seized hundreds of sensitive government records from the resort club, as the government’s investigation progressed, according to CNN. 

He told Collins that he had “no clue” that he may have been assisting Nauta in moving classified documents from Mar-a-Lago to Trump’s plane in June 2022, which was the same day the former president was slated to meet with the government about classified materials.

The boxes he remembered moving, he said, were “the white bankers boxes” pictured in the indictment. 

Butler also corroborated reports that Trump had shared national security secrets with Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt. He recalled Pratt relaying classified information about U.S. and Russian submarines to his chief of staff in the backseat of Butler’s car after a conversation with the former president in the spring of 2021. 

Those revelations comprise only a “small fraction of the absolutely damning evidence” of Trump’s wrongdoing in the Mar-a-Lago indictment, Eisen said. 

Butler’s statements also have the potential to implicate other Trump aides, Javed Ali, the former senior counterterrorism official at the Department of Homeland Security, told Salon.

If Butler’s comments about moving boxes he said contained classified material are “accurate,” Ali said, “it suggests that aides close to President Trump knew of their contents and were taking steps to transport them to other locations to perhaps avoid scrutiny from law enforcement, since the FBI and DOJ investigation had begun months earlier in 2021.”

The extent Butler’s remarks will impact Smith’s case against the former president “remains to be seen,” Ali added, though he is likely to appear as a prosecution witness at the trial.

Butler speaking publicly about “potential testimony” has also likely raised concern for the Justice Department, Aganga-Williams explained. Any further public comments he makes raise the risk of his words potentially being “exploited” during trial.

“Anytime someone discusses facts from memory, it is possible to inadvertently misstate details, even if small,” he said. “A good defense lawyer will pay close attention to each word previously said by a witness and use them to cross-examine that witness and undermine the witness’ credibility in front of a jury.”

---

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

---

The evidence Butler shared during the interview, however, is also “overwhelming,” Eisen said, pointing to instances where Butler detailed “some extremely peculiar behavior that [does] create a possible inference of criminal intent.”

The primary challenge of Trump’s Florida criminal case “is that you have a judge who has indicated that she’s partial to Donald Trump,” he added.

U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing the proceedings, has routinely raised alarm over her handling of the case’s schedule, with several legal experts repeatedly calling out what they allege are her clear efforts to delay the pre-trial proceedings to benefit Trump and his presidential bid. Her decision to release the witness list in the case — against the request of the special counsel, who noted Trump and his base’s potential to threaten witnesses — has also earned her harsh rebuke.

“It was damning that Butler cited Judge Cannon’s stated intention to release the names of witnesses as why he chose to preemptively reveal his identity,” Aganga-Williams said. “It demonstrates that Cannon’s actions have serious consequences.”

As the pre-trial proceedings drag on and the trial timeline appears increasingly unclear, the question remains whether a jury will ever hear it — and the evidence Butler provided, Eisen explained. If Cannon seeks to “stall” the case until 2025, and Trump reclaims the presidency, Trump will have the authority to “dismiss” the case or “try to pardon himself.”

“Cannon has shown really outrageous bias to Donald Trump in the past and, by her many moves already to delay this case, is calling into question whether it will be tried — as it should be — to verdict in 2024 or will be pushed into the indefinite future,” Eisen said.