Trump aide Walt Nauta also INDICTED in classified documents scandal
Trump valet Walt Nauta is also INDICTED in classified documents probe after moving boxes at Mar-a-Lago: Ex-President tears into Department of Justice ‘thugs’ for trying to ‘destroy’ Navy veteran personal aide
- Nauta was Trump’s aide in the White House who moved with him to Mar-a-Lago
- He moved boxes with a maintenance worker before the FBI conducted their search warrant on Mar-a-Lago last August
- Trump railed against prosecutors, saying they were trying to destroy Nauta’s life
Donald Trump revealed his trusted White House aide Walt Nauta also has been indicted in the classified documents scandal, and claimed prosecutors are trying to ‘destroy his life’.
Nauta serves as the former president’s aide and golfing partner, and has stayed by his side since he left office while others have left.
The latest sensational development in the federal investigation into Trump came as two of the former president’s top attorneys suddenly resigned on Friday morning.
Nauta has been central to the Mar-a-Lago probe since the start. He moved boxes with a maintenance worker before the FBI conducted their search warrant on the Palm Beach residence last August,
When the boxes were moved to a store room, Trump’s lawyers contacted the Justice Department to say they were welcome to visit and search the premises.
Donald Trump has said aide Walt Nauta (pictured left) has also been indicted in the classified documents scandal
Nauta serves as the former president’s aide and golfing partner, and has stayed by his side since he left office while others have left
Trump revealed the latest shock development in a post on Truth Social on Friday: ‘I have just learned that the “Thugs” from the Department of Injustice will be Indicting a wonderful man, Walt Nauta, a member of the U.S. Navy, who served proudly with me in the White House, retired as Senior Chief, and then transitioned into private life as a personal aide.
‘He has done a fantastic job! They are trying to destroy his life, like the lives of so many others, hoping that he will say bad things about “Trump.” He is strong, brave, and a Great Patriot. The FBI and DOJ are CORRUPT!’
The specific charges against Nauta have not been revealed.
Nauta was Trump’s military valet while Trump was president and went to work for him after his presidency. His duties including bringing Trump his diet coke when the then-president punched the red button on his desk to request the beverage.
Investigators obtained surveillance footage showing Nauta and a Mar-a-Lago worker moving boxes of the classified documents around the resort.
Nauta had spoken to federal officials repeatedly, first telling them he hadn’t handled boxes or sensitive documents at Mar-a-Lago. But once the surveillance footage was revealed, he changed his story.
He also changed lawyers and stopped cooperating with the investigation.
It’s the second indictment to come out of the federal probe and comes the day after it was revealed Trump faces seven federal charges – including conspiracy, a violation of the Espionage Act, and classified documents retention – related to the documents he took with him after the left the White House.
Just hours before Trump was indicted on Thursday night, a story emerged that Nauta’s lawyers had accused the Department of Justice misconduct.
One of Nauta’s lawyers Stanley Woodward had applied to be a judge in Washington D.C.
Prosecutors brought that up during a meeting with the aide’s legal team in what could be perceived as coercion.
Jim Trusty, Trump’s lawyer who resigned on Friday morning, said on CNN last night that bringing up the judgeship was a scheme to make Nauta cooperate with prosecutors.
Trusty suggested it was criminal activity and deserved investigation.
Trump raged at the Department of Justice on Thursday night after he revealed the indictment
Among Wault Nauta’s duties in the White House were bringing Donald Trump his diet coke
Earlier Friday, Trump attorneys Jim Trusty and John Rowley suddenly resigned from his defense team.
The lawyers announced their move in a statement, soon after Trump issued a post thanking them for their work and saying he would be announcing ‘additional lawyers’ in the coming days – without saying who they were or why the pair left.
‘This morning we tendered our resignations as counsel to President Trump, and we will no longer represent him on either the indicted case or the January 6 investigation,’ said Trusty and Rowley, without further explanation for the reasons.
‘It has been an honor to have spent the last year defending him, and we know he will be vindicated in his battle against the Biden Administration’s partisan weaponization of the American justice system,’ they said.
Meanwhile, Trump was caught on a bombshell audio tape admitting he didn’t classify secret military intelligence he took with him from the White House to Mar-a-Lago and showing off that he had ‘piles’ of sensitive files.
In the recording obtained by CNN, and published hours after his sensational indictment, the former president acknowledged in a 2021 he had retained ‘secret’ military information on Iran in a meeting at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club.
He also bragged about having ‘big piles of papers’ during talks with two people working on ex-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ autobiography and at one point said: ‘This is secret information. Look, look at this.’
It is the second potentially damning audio tape obtained in the classified documents investigation into Trump that has led to seven federal charges and a court appearance in Miami next Tuesday.
‘As president, I could have declassified, but now I can’t,’ Trump says, according to the transcript of the audio.
The recording shows that Trump understood that some of the records he took to his Florida home remained classified. He had previously argued that the president can declassify anything he wants, and has used that his defense when faced with questions on the sensitive files.
The audio recording was from Trump’s 2021 meeting at his Bedminster, New Jersey, resort, with two people working on the autobiography of his former chief of staff Mark Meadows as well as aides employed by the former president, including communications aide Margo Martin.
The transcript of the recording suggests that Trump is showing the document to those in the room – although it’s unclear if it’s the Iran document.
‘Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this,’ Trump says at one point, according to the transcript. ‘This was done by the military and given to me.’
He continued: ‘Well, with Milley – uh, let me see that, I’ll show you an example. He said that I wanted to attack Iran. Isn’t that amazing? I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look. This was him.
‘They presented me this – this is off the record, but – they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him. We looked at some. This was him. This wasn’t done by me, this was him.
He added. ‘All sorts of stuff – pages long, look. Wait a minute, let’s see here. I just found, isn’t that amazing? This totally wins my case, you know. Except it is like, highly confidential. Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this.”
A FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in August found a trove of classified documents (pictured)
Trump was at his Bedminister, New Jersey, golf club on Thursday night when his lawyers informed him he was facing the federal indictment. He posted the news himself to his Truth Social account.
ABC News reported that the 76-year-old faces four separate counts, all of which carry a potential prison time of up to 20 years.
These include: conspiracy to obstruct justice; withholding a document or record; corruptly concealing a document or record; and concealing a document in a federal investigation.
One count carries a 10 year sentence: willful retention of national defense information.
And the final two counts have a maximum of five years each: scheme to conceal, and false statements and representations. Trump’s indictment remains under seal, but his decision to publicize it means feds could unseal it as early as Friday, ahead of next Tuesday’s court appearance in Miami.
The latest charges mark a fresh setback for the 2024 presidential hopeful, who plans to take control of the White House once again.
In the aftermath on Thursday evening, Trump turned DJ and played his favorite tunes from Pavarotti to James Brown just 90 minutes after he discovered he was facing the historic federal indictment that could see him jailed for 100 years.
After making a roaring statement on Truth Social, where he declared ‘I AM AN INNOCENT MAN’, Trump appeared to calm his nerves by having dinner at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey, before playing disk jockey all night.
Wearing a Make America Great Again cap and pretending to be a DJ, Trump blasted Elvis, amongst his other favorite songs, a source told the New York Times.
It remains unclear what the immediate and long-term political consequences will be for the former leader.
His first indictment spurred millions of dollars in contributions from angry supporters and did not damage Trump in the polls as the 2024 presidential race ramps up.
The former president’s legal troubles extend beyond the New York indictment and classified documents case. The special counsel has a separate probe underway focused on efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election while the district attorney in Georgia’s Fulton County is investigating Trump over alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 election in that state.
Trump will appear in court in Miami at 3pm on Tuesday, where the most recent charges will be put to him. Security has already been increased around the courthouse ahead of his appearance before the judge.
He has already been indicted in New York and faces additional investigations in Washington and Atlanta that could lead to criminal charges.
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