Donald Trump’s valet and alleged co-conspirator in a plot to withhold classified documents from federal investigators hired a Florida-based attorney before pleading not guilty to the charges on Thursday.
(Bloomberg) — Donald Trump’s valet and alleged co-conspirator in a plot to withhold classified documents from federal investigators hired a Florida-based attorney before pleading not guilty to the charges on Thursday.
Waltine “Walt” Nauta, a former military valet who followed Trump from the White House to become a personal aide at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, brought on former public defender Sasha Dadan, who is based in Fort Pierce, a small city about 130 miles north of Miami where the case may be tried.
Nauta appeared before a federal magistrate judge in Miami to formally enter his plea, court records show. Like Trump, he will be allowed to remain free pending trial. The arraignment had been delayed while Nauta looked for a local attorney licensed to practice in federal court. US District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, is overseeing the case and sits in Fort Pierce.
Dadan declined to comment when reached by phone. She joins Nauta’s Washington-based attorney Stanley Woodward, who also declined to comment.
The former president already pleaded not guilty in the case, which is being led by Special Counsel Jack Smith. Trump, who is campaigning to return to the White House in the 2024 presidential election, denies wrongdoing and claims the charges are part of a politically motivated “witch hunt.”
The 38-count indictment unsealed June 9 describes Nauta as an executive assistant in Trump’s personal office as well as his “body man.” Nauta was allegedly directed by Trump to “move boxes of documents to conceal them from Trump’s attorney, the FBI and the grand jury” after the National Archives enlisted the Justice Department to seek the return of the records.
Boxes Moved
After receiving a subpoena for the documents, Trump agreed to search for responsive documents alongside his attorney, the government claims. But, without his lawyer’s knowledge, Trump allegedly instructed Nauta to move dozens of boxes from a storage room at the property to Trump’s personal residence, so the lawyer would not be able to search them.
Nauta is accused of falsely telling investigators that he wasn’t aware of the boxes of documents being moved to Trump’s home, and falsely saying he didn’t know if the boxes had been stored in a secure location before the transfer.
Nauta’s plea hearing comes a day after newly unsealed details from the probe shed light on how investigators made their case in court last year for a warrant to search Mar-a-Lago, including the extent of surveillance footage they said showed boxes being moved by Nauta.
The affidavit describes the movements of a person called “Witness 5.” The person isn’t named, but the events match sections of the indictment that identify Nauta.
Cannon ordered the trial to begin Aug. 14, but the special counsel’s office has asked to push that back to December to allow time to manage the complex issues related to classified information involved in the case. Lawyers for Trump and Nauta are due to respond to the government’s proposal, and potentially present their own pitch for a trial schedule, on July 10.
The case is USA v. Trump, 9:23-cr-80101, US District Court, Southern District of Florida.
(Updates with Nauta’s lawyer declining to comment.)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.