Trump aide Walt Nauta pleads not guilty in classified doc case

Donald Trump’s body man, Walt Nauta, pleaded not guilty in Miami federal court Thursday to charges of allegedly helping the 45th president hoard classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate and then lying about it.

Nauta, a former White House valet, is accused of moving sensitive papers around the Palm Beach, Fla., resort to hide them from both the 77-year-old Trump’s lawyers and from the feds.

Attorney Stanley Woodward entered the plea on his client’s behalf to six counts including making false statements, scheming to conceal, corrupt concealment, concealing a document in a federal probe, withholding a document or record, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

At Trump’s bidding, prosecutors say, Nauta shifted boxes of the records so that the 45th president’s lawyers couldn’t find them — leaving them to wrongly report to federal investigators that a thorough search of Mar-a-Lago had been conducted.

In a partially unsealed version of a warrant application submitted last year and released Wednesday evening, investigators said a person identified only as “Witness 5” was seen on multiple days carrying either cardboard or bankers’ boxes in and out of an anteroom before FBI and DOJ officials visited Mar-a-Lago June 3, 2022, to collect documents.

On that date, the former president’s attorneys turned over 38 classified papers along with a signed letter attesting that a “diligent search” of the home had been done.

The affidavit does not mention Nauta by name, but the dates of the actions in the affidavit — as well as of an FBI interview “during which the location of boxes was a significant subject of questioning” — line up with the dates cited in the indictment unsealed June 9.

Trump, 77, pleaded not guilty on June 13 to a 37-count indictment in the same case, charging him with willful retention of classified documents, making false statements, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

Nauta, a Navy veteran, used to get Trump’s Diet Cokes when he worked in the White House. When Trump left office, Nauta became his personal aide at the former commander-in-chief’s Florida home.

Nauta had been scheduled for two prior court appearances in the case but his arraignment was delayed due to his struggles to retain a lawyer licensed in Florida. His scheduled appearance last week was scrapped after stormy weather canceled his flight from Newark.

Ahead of the arraignment, Nauta hired Sasha Dadan, a criminal defense attorney and former public defender whose main law office is in Fort Pierce, where the judge who would be handling the trial is based.

A status conference in Trump’s case is set for July 14 with a trial tentatively due to begin Aug. 14, but prosecutors are seeking to push the start date back until Dec. 11.

Woodward declined to comment Thursday.

With Post wires