MIAMI (AP) — A Donald Trump valet is set to be arrested on Tuesday for helping the former president hide classified documents the Justice Department wanted to retrieve.
Walt Nauta was charged earlier this month alongside Trump in a 38-count indictment filed by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith. Although Trump has already pleaded not guilty to the charges, a judge postponed Nauta’s arraignment to give him time to find a Florida-based lawyer.
The indictment accuses Nauta of conspiring with Trump to conceal documents he took with him from the White House to his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago.
Prosecutors allege that Nauta, under the direction of the former president, moved boxes of documents bearing classification marks so they wouldn’t be found by a Trump lawyer tasked with searching the house for classified documents at return to government. According to prosecutors, this resulted in a false statement to the Justice Department that a “diligent search” of classified documents had been made and that all documents responding to a subpoena had been returned.
Nauta is a Navy veteran who fetched Trump’s Diet Cokes as a White House valet before joining him as his personal assistant at Mar-a-Lago. He is regularly at Trump’s side, even traveling in Trump’s motorcade to the Miami courthouse for their court appearance earlier this month and then accompanying him on a stop at the city’s famous Cuban restaurant, Versailles. where he helped usher in supporters eager to take selfies with the former president. .
Meanwhile, the Justice Department last week proposed a Dec. 11 trial date for Trump, asking for a postponement from a judge’s original August date.
And on Monday, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon denied a request by the Justice Department to file under seal the names of 84 potential witnesses they want Trump ordered to have no contact with as the investigation continues. business is progressing.
She said that in her opinion, the Justice Department did not explain why it had to file the list with the court or why it was necessary to seal the list from public view.
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Tucker reported from Washington.