Trump, Walt Nauta plead not guilty to new documents charges

WASHINGTON – Former President Donald Trump and co-defendant Walt Nauta pleaded not guilty on Thursday to additional charges filed last month in the federal classified document case against them.

While Trump, 77, did not appear at the courthouse in Fort Pierce, Fla., Nauta entered his plea in person before US Magistrate Judge Shaniek Maynard. The 45th president’s attorney, Todd Blanche, entered the not guilty plea on Trump’s behalf.

Trump and Nauta both pleaded not guilty on June 13 and July 6 respectively to the initial counts in the indictment brought by special counsel Jack Smith.

The first indictment levied 37 counts against the former president and six counts against Nauta related to the illegal stashing of classified and other national security documents at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

At Trump’s bidding, prosecutors say, Nauta shifted boxes of 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.

A superseding indictment filed July 27 included three additional counts against Trump — two of which could earn him an additional 40 years in prison if convicted – and two more counts against Nauta.

A second co-defendant charged in the superseding indictment, Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira, was also scheduled to enter his plea Thursday, but his arraignment was postponed due to his failure to hire a local attorney to represent him alongside his Washington-based federal lawyers.

This was the second time De Oliveira’s arraignment was postponed following his initial appearance on July 31. The property manager was indicted on four counts related to his alleged moving of boxes of classified documents and attempts to delete footage of the act to thwart federal investigators and Trump’s own lawyers.

De Oliveira was released on a $100,000 signature bond and ordered to not communicate about the case with any fact witnesses identified by the government, the same condition of release agreed to by Trump and Nauta.

Unlike after other arraignments of his this year, Trump did not make a statement following the Thursday hearing. However, he posted his continued claims of the “weaponization” of the Justice Department on Truth Social Thursday morning.

“I think that Crooked Joe Biden is not only dumb and incompetent, I believe he has gone MAD, a stark raving Lunatic, with his HORRIBLE AND COUNTRY THREATENING ENVIRONMENTAL, OPEN BORDERS, & DOJ/FBI WEAPONIZATION POLICIES. HE IS A MENTAL CATASTROPHE THAT IS LEADING OUR COUNTRY TO HELL!” said Trump, who despite his legal woes is again the frontrunner to secure the Republican nomination for president in 2024.