Body man and co-defendant Walt Nauta delayed entering a plea again on Tuesday, two weeks after his boss, former President Donald Trump, pleaded not guilty following special counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents indictment.
Nauta did not enter a plea when he appeared at the Miami court with Trump in mid-June, receiving a two-week extension as he sought a local attorney in Florida. Nauta’s lawyer Stanley Woodward contended on Tuesday that he still had not obtained counsel in Florida, and his arraignment was delayed once more to July 6.
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Nauta said through his lawyer that he had not been able to make it to Florida from New Jersey due to the weather.
Nauta faces six criminal counts: conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding of a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, scheme to conceal, and a false statements charge.
Attorney General Merrick Garland insisted last week that he “followed” all proper regulations when asked about the Justice Department’s indictment of Trump, with Garland also defending the “integrity” of Smith in bringing the charges.
Garland hand-picked Smith to be special counsel in November, insisting at the time that Smith’s decision would be made “independent” of him despite his role as the head of the Justice Department and chief law enforcement officer.
Nauta followed Trump to his Florida resort home of Mar-a-Lago after the former president lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden, and the Trump aide arrived at the Miami federal courthouse in the same SUV as the former president earlier this month.
Nauta has stood by Trump, figuratively and literally, following the indictment, including joining Trump on his post-indictment campaign swings in Georgia and North Carolina the weekend after the indictment.
After the arraignment hearing earlier this month, Nauta was with Trump again when the former president greeted supporters at a local Miami cafe. A judge said earlier this month that Trump and Nauta could still talk to each other about topics unrelated to the criminal investigation but that discussions about the case would need to go through their respective attorneys.
"There will be no communication about the case with fact witnesses who are on a list provided by the government," U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman told Trump earlier this month.
Nauta allegedly moved around boxes at Mar-a-Lago that contained government records Trump had retained after leaving the White House.
Nauta, whose full name is Waltine Torre Nauta, is from Guam and joined the Navy in 2001. Despite urging from the Justice Department, he declined to cooperate with Smith in the investigation into Trump.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 31 counts for the willful retention of national defense information, one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, one count of withholding a document or record, one count of corruptly concealing a document or record, one count of concealing a document in a federal investigation, one count for a scheme to conceal, and one count related to alleged false statements.
In addition to vehemently defending himself and lashing out at Smith, Trump has publicly backed Nauta, saying the special counsel is indicting a "wonderful man."
“He has done a fantastic job!" Trump said on his Truth Social platform just after Smith revealed the indictment. "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.”
Trump-nominated Southern District of Florida Judge Aileen Cannon, who sided with Trump when instructing a special master to oversee the Justice Department's classified documents investigation, will preside over much of the rest of the former president's case.
The judge has initially scheduled a trial to begin on Aug. 14, but the actual trial date is likely to be later than that. The Justice Department quickly asked to push the date back to Dec. 11.
Cannon initially denied Smith’s efforts to seal the names of 84 witnesses, telling the Justice Department it has not yet properly explained why such a move is necessary.
Nauta worked in the Trump White House as a “senior chief culinary specialist.” His records show his duty station was the “Presidential Food Service,” part of the White House Military Office, from November 2012 to May 2021. He retired from the Navy in September 2021.
Reports have claimed that among Nauta’s many White House duties was bringing Trump a Diet Coke after he pushed a red button on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. The Trump body man was reportedly added to the payroll of Trump’s Save America political action committee in August 2021, receiving $176,000 over the next year and a half, and he worked as an executive assistant in the Office of Donald J. Trump.
Nauta was then added to the Trump campaign payroll after it launched in November 2022.
“Trump endeavored to obstruct the FBI and grand jury investigations and conceal his continued retention of classified documents by, among other things … directing defendant Waltine Nauta to move boxes of documents to conceal them from Trump’s attorney, the FBI, and the grand jury,” Smith wrote when charging Trump and Nauta.
Nauta’s lawyer, Woodward, has reportedly filed a letter under seal with Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging prosecutorial misconduct by the Justice Department's chief of the counterintelligence section, Jay Bratt. Nauta’s lawyer declined to comment to the Washington Examiner.
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Jim Trusty, a former Trump lawyer, said in mid-June that this was “criminal obstruction behavior by prosecutors” in reference to Woodward’s allegations against the Justice Department.
Without addressing the claims directly, Smith said in rare public remarks just after the indictment was unsealed that “the prosecutors in my office are among the most talented and experienced in the Department of Justice” and that “they have investigated this case hewing to the highest ethical standards."