The staffer, identified by The Washington Post as Walt Nauta, reported that Trump told him to transfer boxes of documents to other locations on the Mar-a-Lago compound after the Justice Department issued a subpoena in May for missing government files. Nauta became a private aide to the previous president in Florida after serving as a valet within the Trump White House, sources told the Post.
The Latest York Times reported Thursday that Nauta was spotted on surveillance video hauling out boxes of documents from a Mar-a-Lago storage room that was a “focus” of presidency officials. Nauta reportedly told the FBI that he was following Trump’s orders.
The footage supports Nauta’s accounts to the FBI about how the materials were handled under Trump’s direction at the same time as government officials sought to reclaim public records faraway from the White House when Trump left office, the Post noted.
Trump has claimed with none evidence that some documents confiscated at his Mar-a-Lago private club were planted by the FBI. He has also claimed that he was unaware of what material was taken from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago estate because documents were packed by federal staff. White House records are imagined to be collected by the National Archives when a president leaves office.
Nauta couldn’t be reached for comment.
Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich has dismissed the account, complaining to the Times that it’s an example of the Biden administration “colluding with the media through targeted leaks in an overt and illegal act of intimidation and tampering.”
