Trump Aide Pleads Not Guilty in Classified Documents Case

Walt Nauta, a personal aide to former President Donald Trump, pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal charges of conspiring with Trump to obstruct the government’s monthslong efforts to retrieve a trove of highly sensitive national security documents from the former president after he left office.

Nauta’s plea was entered for him by his lawyer, Stanley Woodward Jr., at a brief arraignment in U.S. District Court in Miami. Woodward was accompanied at the hearing by a local Florida lawyer who will be helping in the case, Sasha Dadan.

A 40-year-old Navy veteran from Guam, Nauta was charged with Trump last month in a 38-count indictment with conspiracy, making false statements and withholding documents. He was not arraigned with Trump on June 13 because Woodward, who is based in Washington, had not yet hired a lawyer licensed to practice in Florida.

Dadan, a former public defender, has limited experience with the federal courts — her name does not appear at all in PACER, the nationwide database of federal cases — but she has handled numerous local cases in Fort Pierce, Florida. That is where Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing Trump’s prosecution, is based and where the former president’s trial with Nauta may eventually be held.

Dadan has also been active in Republican politics in recent years, mounting an unsuccessful campaign for the Florida House in 2018.

The indictment against Trump and Nauta was filed by the office of special counsel Jack Smith. It describes how Nauta repeatedly moved boxes at Trump’s request in and out of a storage room at Mar-a-Lago, the former president’s private club and residence in Florida, during a critical period: the weeks between the issuance of a subpoena in May 2022 demanding the return of all classified documents in Trump’s possession and a visit to Mar-a-Lago soon after by federal prosecutors seeking to enforce the subpoena and collect any relevant materials.

According to the indictment, Nauta removed 64 boxes from the storage room during those weeks but only brought back about 30, with the rest unaccounted for. All of this took place, the indictment says, before one of Trump’s lawyers, M. Evan Corcoran, began to sort through the material kept in the storage room in an effort to find any remaining classified material and turn it over to the government.

Nauta’s arraignment — a brief and largely ceremonial procedure — had none of the circuslike atmosphere that marked Trump’s own arraignment in Miami. The hearing in front of Magistrate Judge Edwin G. Torres lasted about 10 minutes as Woodward did little more than enter Nauta’s plea and request a jury trial.

Nauta, who served as one of Trump’s White House valets before going to work for him at Mar-a-Lago, is now in the delicate position of being both the former president’s co-defendant in a high-stakes federal prosecution and one of his most intimate employees. Complicating matters, Trump is under a court order not to discuss the facts of the indictment with more than 80 people involved in the case — including Nauta, whose job is to shadow the former president everywhere he goes and to cater to his various whims and needs.

Well before the indictment was filed, the government had been trying to get Nauta to turn on Trump and cooperate with their investigation. As early as last fall, prosecutors in Washington ratcheted up the pressure on Nauta and Woodward, saying they were skeptical of Nauta’s account about moving boxes for Trump.

Two weeks ago, prosecutors working for Smith asked Cannon to push the start of the trial back until Dec. 11. Trump’s lawyers have until Monday to respond to the government’s request and suggest their own schedule.

The timing of the trial could be hugely consequential, particularly if Cannon allows it to take place after the 2024 election. Should that happen and should Trump — the current front-runner for the Republican nomination — win the race, he could have his attorney general simply drop the case in its entirety.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/06/us/walt-nauta-trump-documents.html">The New York Times</a>.