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