Donald Trump's White House Valet Has Also Been Indicted as 'Co-Conspirator' in Classified Docs Case

Walt Nauta, a U.S. Navy veteran and longtime aide to the former president, was reportedly caught on security footage moving boxes at Mar-a-Lago

Donald Trump's White House valet and personal assistant, Waltine Nauta, has been charged alongside the former president as a result of special counsel Jack Smith's classified documents probe, according to the newly unsealed federal indictment.

Nauta, a U.S. Navy veteran and longtime aide to the former president, was reportedly caught on security footage moving boxes at Trump's Mar-a-Lago property, just one day before the FBI executed a search warrant there last August.

CNN reports that Nauta and another worker at Mar-a-Lago can be seen on footage obtained by investigators moving boxes of the classified documents around the property, despite him telling investigators he hadn't handled any of the documents.

Nauta's charges, totaling six counts, include concealing a document in a federal investigation, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and making false statements and representations.

Related: Donald Trump Charged with Violating the Espionage Act in Historic Federal Indictment

Before the indictment was unsealed, Trump confirmed that Nauta had been indicted in a post published to Truth Social Friday.

"I have just learned that the 'Thugs' from the Department of Injustice will be Indicting a wonderful man, Walt Nauta, a member of the U.S. Navy, who served proudly with me in the White House, retired as Senior Chief, and then transitioned into private life as a personal aide," Trump wrote. "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!"

CNN previously reported that an employee of the former president's had told agents that they were instructed to move boxes from a basement storage room to a residence at the property — at the direction of Trump himself.

Related: Donald Trump Had Boxes Moved at Mar-a-Lago After FBI Subpoena, Says Staffer

Trump took to his social media site to announce his own indictment on Thursday, chalking the criminal charges up to a sabotage attempt by President Biden, who has kept a distance from the Department of Justice's investigations into Trump for that very reason.

The federal indictment contains several, including willfully retaining national defense secrets in violation of the Espionage Act, making false statements and conspiring to obstruct justice, according to The New York Times.

Trump is set to be arraigned in federal court in Miami on Tuesday, according to ABC News.

Related: A Timeline of the DOJ's Investigation into How Donald Trump Has Handled Classified Documents

The FBI conducted a search at the former president's Mar-a-Lago home on Aug. 8 as part of a criminal investigation that began after the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) revealed in February that officials had removed from the property 15 boxes of documents that should have been handed over at the end of the Trump presidency.

"As required by the Presidential Records Act (PRA), these records should have been transferred to NARA from the White House at the end of the Trump Administration in January 2021," the agency said in a statement, which also indicated that the former president's team said they would continue searching for additional material that legally belonged to the agency.

Around that time, NARA asked the Department of Justice to investigate whether Trump violated the Presidential Records Act, The Washington Post reported, and later informed DOJ officials that some of the retrieved documents contained classified material.

Investigators visited Mar-a-Lago in early June of 2022 and removed additional material marked classified, The New York Times reported. Around that time, a Trump attorney signed a written statement to confirm that all material marked as classified had been returned, according to the Times.

But during the Aug. 8 search, FBI agents found and removed 11 sets of classified documents, an unsealed receipt from the search showed. Some of the documents were marked top secret and were only meant to be viewed at secure government facilities.

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