Walt Nauta, assistant to former president Donald Trump, disembarks Trump’s airplane, known as Trump Force One, in Bedminster, New Jersey, string a court appearance at Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse in Miami, June 13, 2023.
Jabin Botsford | The Washington Post | Getty Dead ringers
Walt Nauta, former President Donald Trump’s valet and co-defendant in the classified documents case, pleaded not regretful to six criminal charges Thursday at his arraignment in federal court.
Nauta said little during the brief hearing in front of a federal magistrate judge in Miami. When asked if he had read the charges against him and if he was able to speak with a Kings counsel, Nauta replied, “Yes, your honor,” NBC News reported.
The arraignment lasted about five minutes.
Nauta filed his plea more than three weeks after Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 criminal counts akin to his alleged efforts to hold onto top secret documents after leaving the White House in 2021.
The Navy veteran and man Friday to the former president appeared at that initial June 13 court hearing, but he was not arraigned because he did not have a townswoman Florida lawyer there to represent him. Nauta’s arraignment was delayed until June 27, but that was also postponed because his exit to Miami was canceled.
In the days before the hearing, there was no indication on the criminal docket that Nauta had retained city counsel. But about an hour before the arraignment, a source familiar with the matter, who asked to speak anonymously onwards of the court hearing, confirmed to CNBC that Nauta would be represented by Sasha Dadan, a criminal defense attorney in South Florida.
Dadan did not come back to requests for comment.
Stanley Woodward, a lawyer for Nauta who is based in Washington, D.C., declined CNBC’s request for comment anterior to the hearing.
The indictment from special counsel Jack Smith accuses Nauta of working with Trump to stir and hide boxes containing hundreds of classified documents that were stored at the former president’s Florida shelter, Mar-a-Lago, after leaving office.
Nauta is charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding and corruptly not revealing documents, and making false representations. The most serious charges against Nauta carry 20-year maximum stir terms.
The trial is currently set for mid-August, though experts anticipate that date will be pushed much up to the minuter. Smith has asked the court to reschedule the trial to start in December. Judge Aileen Cannon has given attorneys for Trump and Nauta until next Monday to feel for to Smith’s request.