Waltine “Walt” Nauta went from Donald Trump’s White House valet to one of the former president’s most trusted aides.
Nauta is now a co-defendant along with Trump in the case against the former president over the handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Nauta has been identified by prosecutors as a co-conspirator and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted on the most serious charge against him.
His loyalty to Trump and questions over whether he’ll flip on the former president are now hanging over arguably one of the most important criminal trials in American history, The Washington Post reports.
According to the indictment, Nauta helped bring boxes to Mar-a-Lago for Trump to review before the former president returned 15 boxes of documents to the National Archives. Prosecutors allege Nauta falsely claimed he didn’t know the boxes were brought to Trump’s estate.
The Post reports that surveillance video shows Nauta removing 64 boxes from a ground floor storage room after a May 2022 grand jury subpoena seeking classified records compelled Trump to turn them over. He was seen returning just 30 boxes to the room before a Trump lawyer searched the room for documents that were sought by the government.
The Post reports that Nauta met with investigators multiple times last year but the relationship soured after a Justice Department lawyer suggested Nauta’s statements had already put him in legal jeopardy.
“Nauta’s lawyers reacted angrily to that suggestion and the relationship never recovered,” The Post reports.
Nauta could be a compelling witness for the Justice Department if he were to cooperate and testify “truthfully and completely,” former federal prosecutor Chuck Rosenberg told The Post.
“I’ve had many cases where somebody did not tell the truth, perhaps to the FBI when first questioned — and then when reality finally hit, they did tell the truth,” Rosenberg said.
“To be a valuable and credible witness, that person must explain to the jury that they lied, why they lied and why they are not lying now.”
“He’s not partisan, he’s a real genuine person, and somebody who never ever expected in his lifetime to be the valet to the president of the United States — that was the highest honor of his life,” former Trump attorney Ty Cobb told The Post.
“I’d be shocked if Trump said 10 words a day to him. Two of the words not in Trump’s vocabulary? ‘Thank you.’”
