- Open Interview Reveals Trump’s Valet Was Promised Pardon for Lying to FBI
- Nauta was accused of obstructing the investigation into the theft of classified documents from the White House
- The case of classified documents is one of the four criminal proceedings against the former president
Donald Trump’s team promised his valet Walt Nauta that if the former president wins a second term he would be pardoned in the classified documents scandal.
Nauta, Trump’s co-defendant in the case, was accused of lying to the FBI. But the valet was told he would be pardoned if Trump won another term in the White House, according to a November 2022 interview with the FBI.
The interview was given to the FBI by a witness called ‘Person 16’ and described as someone who worked in the Trump White House. A redacted summary was made public on Monday.
The federal trial over classified documents is one of four criminal cases against Trump. This is because the former president removed classified documents from the White House and took the materials to his Mar-a-Lago residence after leaving office in 2021.
Walt Nauta, Donald Trump’s valet and bodyguard, leaves Trump Tower on Tuesday in the second week of the criminal trial against the former president for hush payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Nauta (pictured with Trump in August 2023) is Trump’s co-defendant in the classified documents case. Trump’s team promised him that he would be pardoned if he was charged with lying to the FBI in the classified documents case.
One of the four criminal trials against the former president includes Trump removing classified documents from the White House after his term ended in 2021 and taking the classified materials to his Mar-a-Lago residence (pictured).
On Tuesday, Nauta and members of Trump’s communications team were seen leaving Trump Tower in New York City amid the second week of the trial in the criminal case involving the former president’s payment of money to the star. Stormy Daniels porn.
The case accuses Trump of falsifying business documents related to the payment and is the first to go to trial in the criminal cases against Trump.
The witness refused to be recorded during the interview. The summary indicated that Person 16 said it would be “a much greater risk for him in Trump world” to have his voice or image recorded.
“The FPOTUS people told NAUTA that their investigation was going nowhere, that it was politically motivated and ‘much ado about nothing,'” the summary of the interview says.
He adds: “NAUTA was also told that even if he is accused of lying to the FBI, FPOTUS will pardon him in 2024.”
FPOTUS refers to ‘former President of the United States’ Donald Trump.
The pardon promised to Nauta depends on whether Trump wins another term in the White House in the 2024 elections, the interview notes indicate.
In June 2023, special counsel Jack Smith accused the Navy veteran of lying to the FBI and obstructing the investigation into the removal of classified documents from the White House instead of turning them over to the National Archives.
Trump was also charged in the case with obstruction and mishandling of classified and national defense information.
Both Nauta and Trump pleaded not guilty.
A new open interview with Person 16, described as someone who worked in the Trump White House, reveals that Nauta was promised a pardon if the former president won another term in 2024.
A Justice Department image shows boxes of documents strewn across the floor of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
Person 16 has not spoken to Nauta since Trump took office, according to the FBI’s redacted summary of the interview.
Nor does it indicate how the witness became aware of the promised forgiveness.
The witness visited Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, several times after Trump’s presidency and during a visit in November 2021 had told the former president to turn over “any” documents he had to the National Archives.
‘Let them come here and take everything. “Don’t give them a noble reason to accuse you, because they will,” the witness told Trump, according to the witness’ account revealed in the summary.