Donald Trump’s valet Walt Nauta pleaded not guilty on Thursday to charges that he helped the former president hide classified documents from federal authorities, appearing with a new Florida attorney to represent him as the case progresses.

Nauta was indicted in June along with Trump on a 38-count charge of mishandling classified documents. His settlement would have happened twice before, but he struggled to keep a licensed attorney in Florida and one appearance was postponed due to his travel issues.

Prior to his settlement, Nauta hired Sasha Dadan, a criminal defense attorney and former public defender whose headquarters are in Fort Pierce, where the judge who would hear the trial is located. She appeared in court with Nauta, along with his Washington attorney, Stanley Woodward, who pleaded not guilty on his behalf.

Nauta replied: Yes, Your Honor, when asked if he had reviewed the charges during the brief trial. He and his lawyers left the courthouse after the appointment and went a

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Lack of Mercedes-Benz sedan without answering questions from reporters.

Trump pleads not guilty to 37 felony counts in federal classified documents case

Trump pleaded not guilty to charges including willful withholding of national defense information at his June 13 appointment. But Nauta’s arraignment was postponed that day due to the lawyer situation and was postponed again last week when a flight from New Jersey he was supposed to take was canceled.

The indictment filed by Special Counsel Jack Smith and his team of prosecutors accuses Nauta of conspiring with Trump to conceal documents the former president took from the White House after his term expired in January 2021.

Prosecutors allege that, at the direction of the former president, Nauta moved boxes of documents with classification marks so they wouldn’t be found by a Trump attorney tasked with searching the home for classified documents to be returned to the government.

That, prosecutors said, resulted in a false claim to the Justice Department that classified documents had been diligently searched and that all documents that responded to a subpoena had been returned.

Trump listed 37 charges, including violations of the espionage law, in a classified documents case

The movement of the boxes was captured on surveillance camera footage subpoenaed by the Justice Department, and officers and prosecutors cited those actions as the basis for the probable cause of a crime in their August search warrant filing at Mar-a -Lago search. according to newly unsealed information from the application.

Prosecutors say Nauta also misled the FBI during an interview with agents last year when he said he was unaware that boxes of documents were brought to Trump’s residence in Mar-a-Lago.

Nauta is a Navy veteran who fetched Trump’s Diet Coke as his valet at the White House before joining him as a personal assistant at Mar-a-Lago. He regularly stands by Trump’s side, including traveling with Trump’s motorcade to the Miami courthouse for their performance earlier this month and then accompanying him to a stop at the city’s famous Cuban restaurant Versailles, where he helped supporters eager to take selfies with the former president. .

Tucker reports from Washington.