Video evidence before juries is "always compelling" and the clip of Donald Trump's aide and co-defendant moving boxes of purported documents will be a helpful arrow in Jack Smith's quiver as he fights to convict, a legal analyst said Saturday.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that surveillance footage from the former president's Florida resort showed Nauta, who recently pleaded not guilty after delaying his arraignment multiple times, "moving dozens of boxes in the days before Justice Department investigators visited the property in June 2022 to retrieve records."
That video could paint a picture of the alleged crimes for a jury, according to MSNBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos, who appeared Saturday on "Symone." The host asked Cevallos what the surveillance footage of Nauta moving these boxes could show about Trump's criminal intent.
"For the prosecution, it represents another piece of the puzzle. And you have the physical act of what Nauta moving boxes, assuming those boxes can be proved to have classified documents and the other documents that are issued in this case, then that is pretty damaging," he said.
Cevallos, who is a defense attorney, added that Trump's team may argue that Nauta moving the boxes didn't mean he did so via "a direct order by the former president."
"So, these pieces of surveillance evidence, video evidence, or always compelling," he noted, adding that juries "have come to expect this kind of evidence."
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Cevallos then continued:
"It's helpful to the government. The government loves this kind of evidence," he said. "But of course, they need to fill in all the other gaps. And those gaps are mostly in the area of intent. Who knew what, and why did they know it?"
