Trump's indicted body man landed Mar-a-Lago gig despite many sex harassment claims: report
February 02, 2024
Donald Trump’s valet, who's been indicted as a central player in Trump's hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, became his hired hand after being removed from the White House once multiple sexual harassment claims came to light, The Daily Beast reports.
Before landing a full-time position at the former president's Palm Beach palatial estate, Walt Nauta was a Navy enlistee who had been posted in the White House Presidential Support Detail since 2012.
That ended, according to sources who spoke to the Daily Beast, when accusations materialized accusing Nauta of fraternization, adultery, harassment and circulating “revenge porn,” among other sexual misconduct. He was escorted off White House grounds by the Navy and stripped of his White House security clearance, the report said.
Three female service members accused Nauta of inappropriate behavior which spanned years, according to The Beast.
They came forward to their superiors in the spring of 2021, shortly after Nauta was shown the White House door and situated with a temporary post-presidential assignment.
One woman reported an “inappropriate relationship between a senior person and a junior person,” without naming Nauta, a source told the outlet.
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Two other women raised complaints accusing Nauta, who ultimately admitted to the relationships when confronted about them during a White House interview.
His superior officer ushered him off the White House premises the same day, according to the report.
After failing to defeat Biden in the 2020 election, Trump fled D.C. for Palm Beach, Florida and an aide of his tapped Nauta to take a permanent gig at Mar-a-Lago as the ex-president’s personal body man, and a source told the outlet that when Nauta informed his naval superiors he wanted to take the gig, he received the green light.
When The Beast reached out to Trump's communications director Steven Cheung about Nauta's sexual misconduct backstory, he said the story was a "smear."
“This is nothing more than a blatant attempt to smear Mr. Nauta for political purposes,” reads Cheung's statement to The Beast. “He is a distinguished veteran of over 20 years who honorably served his country, and no amount of baseless and fabricated attacks will ever change that.”
The outlet noted that Cheung didn't confirm or deny if Trump or his political campaign were aware of the allegations aired against Nauta when he was hired in 2021.