Prosecution in document affair
Trump’s butler pleads not guilty
7/6/2023, 7:39 p.m
After the inglorious end of Trump’s presidency, his butler follows him to the luxury property in Florida. There he is said to have helped the Republican to hide secret files. Walt Nauta does not even want to hear the indictment, he rejects the allegations.
In the secret documents affair, the accused butler of ex-US President Donald Trump, Walt Nauta, has pleaded not guilty. Nauta appeared in federal court in Miami, Florida. The 40-year-old rejected the allegations against him at the hearing through his lawyer. He also waived his right to have the indictment read out.
Marine veteran Nauta also stands by his employer Trump on the golf green.
(Photo: picture alliance / ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Nauta was accused along with Trump in the document affair at the beginning of June. He is said to have helped the former president hide secret government files from his time in the White House in his luxury Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. He carried boxes from one room to another in Mar-a-Lago. Nauta faces six charges including conspiracy to obstruct justice, hiding official documents and false testimony.
The Marine veteran worked as a butler at the White House during Trump’s presidency from 2017 to 2021. He succeeded the Republican to Mar-a-Lago after his term ended. Nauta was regularly seen alongside Trump even after the indictment in early June. However, a judge has forbidden the two to speak about the case.
Trump faces a long prison sentence
Trump had already pleaded not guilty to all 37 counts of the document affair in June. The former president and leading Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential election has been charged with illegally storing national defense classified files in Mar-a-Lago after he left the presidency.
If convicted, Trump faces a lengthy prison sentence. The 77-year-old denies all allegations and describes the investigation against him as an attempt by President Joe Biden’s administration to politically neutralize him before the 2024 election. The responsible federal judge had scheduled the start of the trial against Trump for mid-August. But this is likely to be delayed. The background is the complicated issue of dealing with secret documents as evidence.