Nauta lawyer trashed by legal expert for trying to delay hearing over non-issue

A lawyer for Donald Trump's valet, Walt Nauta, is already pushing to delay his upcoming hearing – but a legal expert says the reason doesn't make sense.

David Badash earlier cited a slate of lawyers that predicted the delay move was coming – it follows Trump's well-known tactic of trying to delay any and all possible trials until after the 2024 election, hoping that if he's elected president, he can pardon himself.

One reason, Badash reported, is that Nauta's lawyer is also dealing with another client around a Jan. 6 Capitol attack case.

His former FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann took issue with a different issue. According to Nauta's lawyer, Stanley E. Woodward, he doesn't have the necessary clearance to attend the upcoming hearing on July 14 around the classified documents.

His Florida- based lawyer, Sasha Dadan, hasn't even begun to request clearance, CNN reported.

That's not an issue, according to Weissmann.

"For a section 2 CIPA hearing, clearance is not necessary," he explained.

CIPA stands for Classified Information Procedures Act. As Just Security explained, "One of the primary purposes of CIPA is to frontload this process earlier in the proceedings. Due to the complexities involving classified information, both sides need to understand how such information will be used at trial well in advance, so they have time to adjust their strategies accordingly. CIPA provides for just that. In doing so, CIPA provides a mechanism for gradually narrowing the universe of classified information at issue, with that universe becoming smaller at each progressive step."

The Nauta delay shouldn't mean that the hearing must not take place until Woodward garners a clearance level. All he must complete is his Jan. 6 case, and the CIPA hearing can move forward without him being approved for the proper clearance level.

Weissmann doesn't see this as meriting the delay that other legal experts fear.