(Trends Wide) — Walt Nauta, an aide to former President Donald Trump, has been charged in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s handling of classified White House documents, two sources familiar with the indictment told Trends Wide.
Nauta is the second defendant in the federal investigation, after Trump.
Walt Nauta, an aide to former President Donald Trump, follows Trump as they board his plane, March 13, 2023, in West Palm Beach, Florida. Credit: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty Images
An attorney for Nauta declined to comment. Nauta was with Trump at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club this week.
Nauta faces one count of conspiracy to obstruct Justice, according to the federal indictment revealed this Friday afternoon, and five other charges: retention of document or record; corruptly concealing a document or record; concealing a document in a federal investigation; scheme or concert to hide documents; misrepresentation and false statements.
Nauta’s involvement in moving boxes of classified material at Trump’s Florida resort had come under scrutiny by investigators. Nauta, with the help of a maintenance worker at Mar-a-Lago, moved the boxes before the FBI executed a search warrant on the Palm Beach property last August.
According to court documents from last year, the FBI found more than 100 documents marked classified during the search, which took place weeks after a Trump attorney signed a statement certifying that Trump’s team had complied with a May subpoena requesting production of all classified documents.
Investigators obtained surveillance footage showing Nauta and the worker moving boxes of classified documents around the complex, Trends Wide previously reported. Nauta spoke to investigators repeatedly in the investigation, initially telling them that he had not handled any confidential boxes or documents at Mar-a-Lago.
However, once the surveillance video was released, Nauta changed his story, Trends Wide previously reported, and, after switching attorneys, the aide stopped speaking to investigators last fall.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on the accusation.
Nauta lied to the investigators
Donald Trump aide Walt Nauta lied to investigators when he was interviewed by the FBI in May 2022 for the investigation into the former president’s handling of classified documents, prosecutors allege in a federal indictment unsealed this afternoon.
Stacked boxes in the storage room. This photo is included in the federal indictment of Donald Trump. Credit: US District Court/Southern District of Florida
Nauta falsely said he was unaware of the documents brought to Trump’s residence for review before the former president turned over 15 boxes to the National Archives in 2022, according to the indictment. But Nauta himself helped move boxes from the warehouse to Trump’s residence, according to prosecutors.
“When asked if he knew where the TRUMP boxes had been stored, before they were at the Trump residence and if they had been in a secure or locked location, Nauta falsely replied: ‘I wish I could tell you.’ I don’t know. I don’t, honestly, I just don’t know,’” the indictment reads.
The indictment alleges that between November 2021 and January 2022, Nauta and another Trump employee brought boxes from the Mar-a-Lago warehouse to Trump’s residence on the former president’s orders.
