Donald Trump’s body man, Walt Nauta, pleaded not guilty in Miami federal court Thursday to charges of allegedly helping the 45th president hoard classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate and then lying about it.
Nauta, a former White House valet, is accused of moving sensitive papers around the Palm Beach, Fla., resort to hide them from both the 77-year-old Trump’s lawyers and from the feds.
Attorney Stanley Woodward entered the plea on his client’s behalf to six counts including making false statements, scheming to conceal, corrupt concealment, concealing a document in a federal probe, withholding a document or record and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
At Trump’s bidding, prosecutors say, Nauta shifted boxes of the records so that the 45th president’s lawyers couldn’t find them — leaving them to wrongly report to federal investigators that a thorough search of Mar-a-Lago had been conducted.
In a partially unsealed version of a warrant application submitted last year and released Wednesday evening, investigators said a person identified only as “Witness 5” was seen on multiple days carrying either cardboard or bankers’ boxes in and out of an anteroom before FBI and DOJ officials visited Mar-a-Lago June 3, 2022, to collect documents.
On that date, the former president’s attorneys turned over 38 classified papers along with a signed letter attesting that a “diligent search” of the home had been done.
The affidavit does not mention Nauta by name, but the dates of the actions in the affidavit — as well as of an FBI interview “during which the location of boxes was a significant subject of questioning” — line up with the dates cited in the indictment unsealed June 9.
Trump, 77, pleaded not guilty on June 13 to a 37-count indictment in the same case, charging him with willful retention of classified documents, making false statements and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Nauta, a Navy veteran, used to get Trump’s Diet Cokes when he worked in the White House. When Trump left office, Nauta became his personal aide at the former commander-in-chief’s Florida home.
Nauta had been scheduled for two prior court appearances in the case but his arraignment was delayed due to his struggles to retain a lawyer licensed in Florida. His scheduled appearance last week was scrapped after stormy weather canceled his flight from Newark.
Ahead of the arraignment, Nauta hired Sasha Dadan, a criminal defense attorney and former public defender whose main law office is in Fort Pierce, where the judge who would be handling the trial is based.
A status conference in Trump’s case is set for July 14 with a trial tentatively due to begin Aug. 14, but prosecutors are seeking to push the start date back until Dec. 11.