Former Donald Trump aide, Walt Nauta accused of sexual misconduct
Walt Nauta, Trump's former valet, is facing charges of hiding classified documents and alleged sexual misconduct. He was hired while having ‘revenge porn’ stash
Walt Nauta, who served as Donald Trump’s personal assistant at his Mar-a-Lago resort, is facing multiple charges related to his alleged involvement in a scheme to hide classified documents from federal investigators.
Nauta is also accused of sexually harassing and exploiting three female service members while he was part of the White House Presidential Support Detail, according to the Daily Beast.
The report claims that Nauta engaged in fraternization, adultery, inappropriate sexual conduct and blackmail with the women, who were under his command or supervision. He allegedly kept “revenge porn” photos of them and threatened to expose them if they did not comply with his demands.
The accusations came to light in May 2021, when one of the victims reported an “inappropriate relationship between a senior person and a junior person” in a “command climate survey”. The Navy launched an investigation and identified Nauta as the “senior person” involved in multiple misconduct cases.
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Nauta was removed from his White House position and lost his security clearance as a result of the investigation. However, he was not discharged from the Navy and instead received approval to work for Trump as his “body man” at Mar-a-Lago in August 2021.
Trump campaign dismissed all allegations against the butler
The New York Times reported that Navy officials had considered “sending Mr. Nauta back out to sea on a ship” before he joined Trump’s staff. It is unclear if Nauta faced any disciplinary action from the Navy or if Trump was aware of his allegations before hiring him.
The Trump campaign dismissed the report as a “smear” campaign against Nauta. “This is nothing more than a blatant attempt to smear Mr. Nauta for political purposes,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement to The Post.
“He is a distinguished veteran of over 20 years who honorably served his country, and no amount of baseless and fabricated attacks will ever change that.”
Nauta’s troubles did not end with his move to Mar-a-Lago
In December 2021, he discovered several boxes of White House documents marked “confidential” in a storage room at the resort, according to federal prosecutors.
The documents were part of a subpoena issued by special counsel Jack Smith, who was investigating Trump’s handling of classified information after his presidency. Smith alleged that Trump instructed Nauta to remove at least 64 boxes of documents from the storage room and conceal them from the authorities in May 2022.
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Nauta denied any knowledge of the documents when he was questioned by the FBI. He allegedly lied to the agents and said, “I don’t know. I don’t — I honestly don’t know.” He was indicted on six charges in June 2023, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, corruptly concealing a document in a federal investigation, scheme to conceal and making false statements and representations.
