Trump document probe zeroes in on ex-president’s valet

Walt Nauta worked in closer physical proximity to Mr Trump than almost any other administration aide

The Department of Justice investigation into whether former president Donald Trump violated laws prohibiting unauthorised retention of national defence information and obstruction of justice has reportedly zeroed in on a US Navy veteran.

The veteran is Walt Nauta, who served as Mr Trump’s White House valet and remained in the ex-president’s employ after the end of his term.

Prosecutors and federal investigators have repeatedly interviewed Mr Nauta, a 39-year-old former Navy culinary specialist who is currently employed by Mr Trump’s Save America political action committee, according to multiple reports.

The Guam native reportedly enlisted in the US Navy in 2001 and, by 2009, he had been assigned as a culinary specialist in the Navy mess in the White House, a small Navy-run facility reserved for White House staffers.

Mr Nauta became one of Mr Trump’s valets shortly after the start of his term. Over the next four years, he would become one of the ex-president’s longest-serving aides.

He was also reportedly promoted to Senior Chief Petty Officer, the second-highest non-commissioned officer rank in the Navy, in late 2020, but he retired from the service after two decades in mid-2021.

An ex-Trump White House official who spoke to The Independent under the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution claimed the significant parts of Mr Nauta’s days were spent in a vestibule outside the president’s private dining area. The official alleges that Mr Nauta was often waiting to be summoned by a red button Mr Trump kept on his desk.

Mr Trump was apparently fond of demonstrating how the button would summon Mr Nauta to bring him a Diet Coke. The enlisted Navy sailor would also be on call for any of Mr Trump’s other needs, including moving boxes of documents between rooms in the West Wing and the White House residence.

One former White House aide who spoke to the Washington Post said Mr Trump had a significant amount of confidence in Mr Nauta and said Mr Trump “trusted him completely”.

That trust appears to have led Mr Trump to bring Mr Nauta into the group of ex-aides who have surrounded him in his post-presidency.

Kate Andersen Brower, a former Bloomberg News reporter who covered the Obama-era White House and authored the best-selling book The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House, toldThe Independent in an email that Mr Nauta’s other responsibilities would include helping Mr Trump dress each morning and to be on hand for whatever the president needed throughout the day.

“A valet has incredibly close proximity to the president and sees quite a lot. Even more than the butlers who work on the second and third floors and serve the first family,” she said.

In his role serving the former president, Mr Nauta has maintained the same close proximity to Mr Trump.

According to Federal Election Commission records, he has been on the payroll of Mr Trump’s PAC since August 2021.

Sources close to the ex-president say he has continued to serve Mr Trump in a role similar to when he was Navy valet, including having responsibility for the boxes of documents Mr Trump took with him when left the White House.

Mr Nauta was reportedly captured on surveillance CCTV footage from Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence moving boxes thought to contain classified documents in the days following a June 2022 meeting between Mr Trump’s representatives and federal investigators. The investigators had been seeking the return of classified documents which the ex-president allegedly took with him when he left the White House in January 2021.

According to the Washington Post, a person familiar with the investigation has said the boxes Mr Nauta was seen moving were thought to contain a mix of classified documents and news clippings.

The aforementioned source close to Mr Trump told The Independent Mr Nauta would not have moved any boxes at the ex-president’s home without Mr Trump saying so.

Prosecutors have reportedly asked him about the boxes, which Mr Trump reportedly requested to be brought to him from their storage room at Mar-a-Lago just before the 3 June meeting.

According to the Post, Mr Nauta told investigators he moved them from storage to Mr Trump’s living quarters at the ex-president’s request, and returned them after Mr Trump examined their contents.

At the 3 June meeting, Mr Trump’s representatives provided investigators with a sworn declaration that no more classified material remained at Mar-a-Lago. But court documents show the FBI developed evidence to the contrary in the weeks following that meeting, leading to the 8 August search of the ex-president’s property.