Walt Nauta has 'powerful' evidence against Trump — and it's 'in his self-interest' to flip: legal expert
June 14, 2023
Former President Donald Trump's co-conspirator Walt Nauta could be facing immense pressure to flip, and a legal analyst said he could offer "powerful" testimony.
The former president's personal valet has retained Trumpworld lawyer Stanley Woodward but still hasn't hired a local attorney to represent him in Florida, and former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that his choice of counsel could be a key factor in the case.
"Walt Nauta looks like the person that you're going to for cooperation, and in a case like this, there's some suggestion in the indictment it's not clear, but some of the other workers at Mar-a-Lago may have provided information the government has in its complaint," Vance said. "It's Nauta who is involved in conversations with Trump. He has something awfully powerful to offer prosecutors. There's been some reporting that efforts were made to cooperate him prior to indictment, and that for whatever reason, he didn't take advantage of that at that point in time."
"Look, let's not make light of the potential defense here," she continued. "The indictment is very strong. The facts in the indictment are very strong. There's some legal issues that Trump defense team will challenge in this early pretrial stage. Maybe Nauta wants to see how those come out, or maybe, as y'all have suggested, there's an issue here with the legal representation. We remember Cassidy Hutchinson saying that as long as she was represented by the lawyers Trump was paying for, she felt like she was being told to, perhaps, coerce her testimony. Nauta may find himself in a similar situation. He's not of independent means, he would have to summon the gumption or go to the court and ask for appointment of new counsel. He probably would qualify for a federal defender. That would mean a full-on break with Trump. At some point that decision calculus may suggest he should cooperate."
FROM EARLIER: 'He's getting convicted': Morning Joe panel says Trump should cut deal to avoid prison
"One last thing that I'll say in terms of plea deals, DOJ has a strong track record here in cases involving high-ranking officials and pleas, and part of the reason that former officials like David Petraeus, when he stepped down from the CIA, got a plea deal, it was a misdemeanor plea deal with no jail time," Vance added. "It was because the government did not want to have to run the risk of exposing its classified secrets at trial. That sort of a deal will be available to Donald Trump or at least his lawyer can go in and argue for it. Maybe his obstruction means that the deal that's good, is not available to him, but now to have to be thinking in the back of his mind, 'How far does Trump's loyalty to me go, when might he try to save his own soul and leave me hanging?' That is something his lawyer should be discussing with him. That's what's in his self-interest here."
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