MIAMI — An aide to former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiring with the former president to obstruct the U.S. government’s efforts to retrieve classified documents during a brief hearing in Miami federal court on Thursday.
Walt Nauta, a Navy veteran who served as a Trump aide in the White House and now works for him as his personal valet, uttered only three words during the arraignment. When asked by Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres if he had reviewed the indictment, he replied, “Yes, your honor.”
It was Nauta’s third scheduled hearing for what is typically a simple proceeding. Because he did not have a local attorney with credentials to appear in South Florida federal court, he had been unable to enter a plea with Trump on June 13. He missed a second hearing because a flight was canceled due to bad weather and he also had not yet retained a local counsel.
On Thursday, he had one — Sasha Dadan, a Fort Pierce attorney and former public defender, who formally entered his please with the court. His Washington, D.C., defense attorney, Stanley Woodward, also appeared in court.
Nauta now faces trial with the former president in the Fort Pierce division of the Southern District of Florida. But a tentative trial date of Aug. 14 is likely to be postponed until at least December or even next year because of the complexity of the case, which involves volumes of classified and unclassified documents, according to court filings by Justice Department prosecutors. Special Counsel Jack Smith has asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to set the trial for Dec. 11, but Trump’s lawyers are expected to push for a later date.
