Trump aide pushes back arraignment, looks for FL lawyer

Walt Nauta, an aide to Donald Trump who was indicted as a co-conspirator in the former president’s alleged mishandling of classified documents, had his arraignment hearing rescheduled again Tuesday after stormy weather scrapped his flight to South Florida from Newark, NJ.

The ex-White House valet was unable to get rebooked in time to appear in Miami federal court, Nauta attorney Stanley Woodward told Chief Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres, according to reports.

Woodward also admitted that his client had yet to find an attorney admitted to practice in South Florida federal court, which is necessary for proceedings to go forward.

Torres rescheduled Nauta’s appearance for July 6, telling Woodward “to really try to make it your drop-dead deadline to get somebody here” and represent the Navy veteran.

Nauta is expected to plead not guilty to six counts, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding documents, “corruptly concealing a document or record,” “concealing a document in a federal investigation,” scheming to conceal documents and “false statements and representations.”

Trump, 77, pleaded not guilty on June 13 to a 37-count indictment brought by special counsel Jack Smith after the 45th president withheld highly classified national security documents and then lied to federal authorities who sought them.

Both Trump and Nauta have had to scramble for legal representation, with the former president securing Miami-based lawyer Christopher Kise on the eve of his first appearance.

A pretrial conference in Trump’s case has been set for July 14.

On Friday, Smith’s prosecutors requested Trump’s trial be pushed back to Dec. 11 after case judge Aileen Cannon initially set a start date of Aug. 14. Cannon, a Trump appointee, has also ordered the former president’s attorneys to start the process of obtaining security clearances for the discovery process.

Nauta has continued to work as Trump’s body man during the former president’s campaign to regain the White House.

Trump remains the front-runner for the Republican nomination with a 30 percentage-point lead, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.

Woodward did not respond to a request for comment.