Walt Nauta, a personal aide to former President Donald Trump, hired a new lawyer and pleaded not guilty Thursday to criminal charges alleging he played a key role in storing classified documents from investigators at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and hiding them from investigators.
Mr. Nauta smiled at reporters but did not say anything as he arrived at the federal courthouse in Miami. His District of Columbia-based lawyer, Stanley Woodward, entered the plea on Nauta’s behalf.
In a notable development, Mr. Nauta hired Sasha Dadan, a criminal defense lawyer with experience in Fort Pierce, Florida, which has been set as the venue for the trial.
Mr. Nauta is Mr. Trump’s body man and faces six counts in the federal indictment from special counsel Jack Smith, including conspiracy to obstruct, withholding a document or record, and scheme to conceal.
The indictment alleges Mr. Nauta played a role in moving boxes of sensitive documents around Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and misled investigators who asked him about the papers.
The Navy veteran is close to the ex-president, having served as Mr. Trump’s valet at the White House before following him to Florida.
Mr. Nauta was supposed to enter a plea last month, but his arraignment was postponed because of inclement weather, flight delays and trouble landing an attorney.
Mr. Trump pleaded not guilty to over 30 counts in June while Mr. Nauta sought a local attorney.
Mr. Nauta was arraigned one day after prosecutors released additional details about the evidence they used to get a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago last year. The evidence included surveillance footage provided by the Trump Organization.
“Video footage reflects that evidence has been moved recently,” the partially redacted affidavit says. “It cannot be seen on the video footage where the boxes were moved when they were taken from the storage room area, and accordingly the current location of the boxes that were removed from the storage room area but not returned to it is unknown.”
The affidavit says a “Witness 5” moved some of the boxes. The witness is not named, though Mr. Nauta is accused in the indictment of being part of the box-moving process at Mar-a-Lago.
Mr. Trump took aim at Mr. Smith, the lead prosecutor on the case, in an online tirade Wednesday that compared his case to the weekend discovery of cocaine in a portion of the West Wing.
“Where are the White House SECURITY TAPES, like the ones I openly and happily gave to Deranged Jack Smith, which will quickly show where the Cocaine in the White House came from??? They already know the answer, but probably don’t like it!” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“Has Deranged Jack Smith, the crazy, Trump hating Special Prosecutor, been seen in the area of the COCAINE?” Mr. Trump wrote. “He looks like a crackhead to me!”
• This story is based in part on wire service reports.
Source:Washington Times
