(CN) — Walt Nauta, former President Donald Trump's valet at his Mar-a-Lago estate, pleaded not guilty in Miami federal court on Thursday to charges related to the mishandling of classified documents case.
The 40-year-old U.S. Navy veteran, who became one of Trump's personal aides when he left office, faces six federal charges that include conspiracy to obstruct justice, corruptly concealing a document or record, and making false statements.
Trump pleaded not guilty in the case last month. Nauta's plea was delayed because he had not yet retained a lawyer in Florida.
Sasha Dadan, the lawyer he hired to represent him in the state, made his appearance in the hearing Thursday alongside attorney Stanley Woodward, who entered Nauta's plea.
The plea comes a day after the Justice Department unsealed additional portions of the search warrant affidavit used to get authorization to search Trump's Palm Beach property last August, where more than 100 classified documents were uncovered.
Surveillance camera footage that showed Nauta moving boxes on the property, investigators say, led them to believe that Trump was misleading the Justice Department and trying to hide documents.
Investigators had issued a subpoena in June 2022 for Mar-a-Lago security camera footage around a storage room area where Trump allegedly kept dozens of boxes containing classified documents taken from the White House.
Nauta, as seen on camera, moved approximately 64 boxes from the storage room area in May 2022, according to the affidavit. But he was seen returning only 25 to 30 boxes, "some of which were brown cardboard boxes and others of which were bankers boxes," to the storage room just a day before FBI officials were to arrive and collect the classified documents in response to a subpoena.
During that June 3, 2022 visit, law enforcement officials were told that all records sought were included in the envelope of 38 classified documents that was turned over. But the relocation of boxes investigators observed on the security footage led them to believe that additional records still remained inside the property.
Nauta, referred to in the affidavit as "Witness 5," was shown on footage carrying three boxes inside Mar-a-Lago a month prior on May 24, 2022. But when he was interviewed by the FBI two days later, he allegedly denied having any knowledge about the movement and location of boxes on the property, other than the 15 that were sent to the National Archives and Records Administration earlier that year.
Four days after the FBI interview, Nauta moved “approximately fifty bankers boxes” out of a storage room, although the agency “did not observe this quantity of boxes being returned,” according to the affidavit.
While Nauta’s moving of boxes was detailed in the federal indictment that was unsealed last month, its inclusion in the search warrant affidavit explains why it led the Justice Department to believe that not all of the documents were turned over, providing probable cause to search the property in August.
“It is not a surprise to me that they were able to get a search warrant,” said Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University and former federal prosecutor. “They look at all of the evidence together.”
Getting a search warrant approved by a judge would not have been a high bar to clear, said Raff Donelson, associate professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law.
“Probable cause is not a really high standard of evidence,” Donelson said. “It’s nothing like ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ or ‘clear and convincing evidence.' It’s not like ‘preponderance of the evidence.' It doesn't need to be more likely than not, you just need to have a good reason.”
The affidavit's approval, Donelson said, shows there were enough good, independent reasons to believe Trump was previously keeping classified documents in other places in the house to meet the probable cause standard.
Evan Corcoran, the lawyer hired by Trump to fend off the investigation, “stated he was advised all the records that came from the White House were stored in one location within Mar-a-Lago, the storage room, and the boxes of records in the storage room were ‘the remaining repository’ of records from the White House,” a newly unsealed portion of the affidavit states.
Identified in the redacted affidavit as “FPOTUS Counsel 1,” meaning the legal counsel for the former president of the United States, Corcoran also stated that “he was not advised there were any records in any private office space or other location in Mar-a-Lago.”
Corcoran's now-unsealed statements provide context as to why U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell ordered the attorney to testify before a grand jury, despite Trump’s legal team arguing that his conversations with the former president should be shielded by attorney-client-privilege.
Howell ruled in March that there was a “crime-fraud exception,” because he found enough evidence to suggest that Corcoran may have been lied to, and may have repeated those lies to investigators.
The investigation began after the Justice Department received word from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration in February 2022 that Trump had taken boxes of classified documents appearing to contain national defense information.
During his arraignment last month, Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 federal charges at the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse in Miami.
Trump is accused of taking more than 300 classified documents from the White House, a trove that included highly sensitive materials on an Iranian missile program, surveillance efforts in China and the nuclear capabilities of an unidentified foreign power.
The indictment consists of 31 counts for willfully retaining top-secret national security documents, as well as additional counts for conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding and concealing documents, and making false statements to investigators. If convicted on these charges, Trump could face up to 10 years in prison for retaining national security secrets.
Federal prosecutors in the case against Trump have asked for a tentative trial date in December, but legal challenges could cause delays until at least the spring of 2024.
Follow @Megwiththenews
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
