Trump Aide Walt Nauta’s Arraignment Postponed

Former President Donald Trump aide Walt Nauta visits Versailles restaurant with Trump in Miami, Fla., on June 13, 2023. Alex Brandon/AP Photo

Former President Donald Trump valet Walt Nauta’s scheduled court appearance to enter a plea has been postponed due to unexpected travel disruptions.

Nauta’s lawyer, Stanley Woodward, told a judge on Tuesday during a brief hearing in Miami that his client was stuck in Newark, New Jersey, after his scheduled flight for the Florida arraignment was canceled due to storms.

Woodward also told Chief Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres that his client was requesting an extension to retain a Florida lawyer for the case.

While expressing regret for Nauta’s inability to show up for his scheduled hearing, Woodward insisted that his client was taking the charges he’s facing “very seriously.”

Nauta is accused of conspiring with Trump to help the former president hide classified documents stored at Mar-a-Lago that federal authorities wanted returned.

Torres agreed to postpone Nauta’s arraignment until July 6.

Walt Nauta, valet to former U.S. President Donald Trump and a co-defendant in federal charges filed against Trump, arrives at the Miami International Airport in Miami, Fla., on June 12, 2023. Win McNamee/Getty Images

‘Trying to Destroy His Life’

Nauta, a Navy veteran who later became a close aide to Trump, was thrust into the limelight when a grand jury indicted him and the former president on charges related to the classified documents probe.

The 49-page federal indictment charges Trump with 37 felony counts, including violating the federal Espionage Act and other federal statutes for allegedly conspiring to obstruct justice, making false statements, and concealing documents.

Nauta was charged as a co-conspirator and faces six felony counts.

Prosecutors have alleged that Nauta moved dozens of boxes at Trump’s Florida estate at the former president’s direction and then allegedly lied to investigators about it.

The former president said in a video statement released after the indictment was made public that any criminal charges will not stop him from running for president.

“I am an innocent man. I did nothing wrong,” Trump said, while calling the various investigations against him “election interference.”

Former President Donald Trump is introduced at the Oakland County Republican Party's Lincoln Day dinner at Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi, Mich., on June 25, 2023. Scott Olson/Getty Images

He also took to social media to denounce Nauta’s indictment.

“I have just learned that the ‘Thugs’ from the Department of Injustice will be Indicting a wonderful man, Walt Nauta, a member of the U.S. Navy, who served proudly with me in the White House, retired as Senior Chief, and then transitioned into private life as a personal aide,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“He has done a fantastic job! They are trying to destroy his life, like the lives of so many others, hoping that he will say bad things about ‘Trump.’ He is strong, brave, and a Great Patriot. The FBI and DOJ are CORRUPT,”  he added.

During the investigation into the classified documents case, federal prosecutors tried to persuade Nauta to turn on Trump and testify against him.

Trump alleged on Truth Social that prosecutors tried to “bribe [and] intimidate” Nauta’s lawyer by dangling an “important judgeship” before him if his client “flips” on the former president.

Indictment Details

The indictment says that Trump, who’s known for keeping mementos, kept hundreds of classified documents in cardboard boxes at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, which “tens of thousands of members and guests” visited between when he left the White House and when the FBI retrieved the documents in August 2022.

Trump allegedly had documents stored in various places around the resort, including a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, an office space, a storage room, and his bedroom.

When a grand jury in May 2022 issued a subpoena for classified records at Mar-a-Lago, Trump apparently sought to defy the order, telling his attorneys, “I don’t want anybody looking through my boxes,” according to notes from a lawyer detailed in the indictment.

The indictment also says Trump told Nauta “to move boxes of documents to conceal them” from federal investigators, the grand jury, and one of his lawyers.

Trump’s lawyers turned over some records to authorities on June 3, 2022.

The FBI raided Trump’s residence on Aug. 8, 2022, and removed some two dozen boxes of materials, including 54 documents marked as secret and 18 marked as top secret.

Illegally Obtained Evidence?

On the same day that the special counsel released the indictment, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) issued a letter to the Justice Department, calling into question the legality of the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago.

In his letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Jordan laid out testimony from a former FBI official who testified to the GOP-led House subcommittee on the “weaponization” of government about the raid.

Jordan wrote that Steven D’Antuono, a former assistant director at the FBI’s Washington Field Office, told the committee the Justice Department “was not following the same principles” as with previous raids.

D'Antuono listed a number of “abnormalities” around the FBI raid that call into question its legitimacy.

Specifically, D’Antuono said that the FBI didn’t first seek consent to effectuate the search; that the FBI refused to wait for Trump’s attorney to be present before executing the search; that the FBI did not assign a U.S. Attorney’s Office to the matter; and that the Miami Field Office didn’t take the lead.

The FBI declined to comment when asked to respond to the claims in Jordan’s letter.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.