Aileen Cannon’s Trump hearing suddenly erupts into shouting

Shouting ensued during a Wednesday hearing before U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump.

According to reports from inside the courtroom in southern Florida, the disorder took place during a hearing for one of Trump’s two co-defendants, Walt Nauta, who argued before the court that the Department of Justice (DOJ) had vindictively charged him and that the indictment should be dismissed.

The former president is facing 40 felony counts, accused by federal prosecutors of mishandling and withholding classified documents that he took from the White House upon leaving office. Nauta, Trump’s longtime aide, is accused of moving boxes of sensitive materials to prevent federal agents from retrieving them.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Nauta’s attorney, Stanley Woodward, got into a heated exchange with prosecutors over a meeting that took place in August 2022. Woodward alleged that he was pressured in the meeting by a member of Special Counsel Jack Smith‘s team to encourage Nauta to cooperate with the DOJ investigation. According to Woodward’s account, Smith’s prosecutor, Jay Bratt, insinuated that his appointment to the D.C. Superior Court could be negatively affected if Nauta did not cooperate.

The allegation was met with an adamant rejection from prosecutor David Harbach, who, according to CNN‘s report, rose from the prosecution side and called Woodward’s story a “garbage argument.”

“Mr. Woodward’s story of what happened at that meeting is a fantasy,” Harbach reportedly shouted while banging his hand on the table in front of him. “It did not happen.”

While Harbach continued to rebuke Woodward’s claims, Cannon pushed back on why the DOJ had not gathered any evidence regarding the 2022 conversation. The judge also told Harbach to “just calm down” while he answered her questions, according to ABC News senior reporter Katherine Faulders.

A spokesperson for the Special Counsel’s Office declined comment on Harbach’s exclamation or on the hearing.

Wednesday marked the first time that Cannon, a Trump appointee, has held a hearing since indefinitely suspending the start of the trial while other legal disputes related to the classified documents case are settled. The judge has faced criticism for a number of actions she has taken in legal proceedings that some experts say show favor toward Trump.

Cannon also pressed against Woodward’s claims during Wednesday’s hearing, asking the attorney to present evidence of the DOJ’s alleged unfair treatment toward Nauta in the August 2022 meeting. The judge did not issue a ruling from the bench on whether the charges against Nauta should be thrown out, according to reports.

Charges against Trump were delivered in June 2023, roughly 10 months after the FBI conducted a search of the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, which led to the retrieval of hundreds of sensitive documents that had been sought by federal authorities.

Court filings unsealed earlier this week provided additional insight into the information contained in the documents sought by the National Archives and Records Administration. They also shed light on the “operations order” for the FBI agents who conducted the search of Trump’s home in August 2022.