Trump aide caught on security footage moving boxes at Mar-a-Lago

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
13 Oct 2022 08:54
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The former President's advisor can be seen moving boxes from a storage room before and after the Justice Department issued a subpoena requesting the return of all sensitive materials possessed by Trump.

Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida (AP)

Three people familiar with the situation revealed that a long-serving aide to former President Donald Trump was caught on security camera footage moving boxes out of a storage room at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's Florida estate, both before and after the Justice Department issued a subpoena in May demanding the return of all classified documents.

The sources revealed that the video showed Walt Nauta, a former military assistant who left the White House and then proceeded to work for Trump at Mar-a-Lago, carrying boxes from a storage area that became the subject of the Justice Department's probe.

The investigation has focused on whether Trump inappropriately maintained national security records after leaving the White House and impeded the government's numerous attempts to obtain them.

One of the sources revealed that the Justice Department interrogated Nauta many times as part of its investigation. Those interviews began before the FBI executed a search order at Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8 and hauled away more than 11,000 documents, including around 100 with classification markings. Nauta has responded to queries but is not helping formally with the probe into Trump's handling of the papers.

According to the Washington Post, Trump directed an employee who had been examined by the FBI to relocate boxes at Mar-a-Lago. It's unclear whether the employee was Nauta, and a source familiar with the situation and in Trump's entourage suggested it could have been someone else.

In recent weeks, a top Justice Department official notified Trump's lawyers that the Department suspected he had not returned all of the materials. It is unknown whether the boxes that were transferred were among the material ultimately recovered by the FBI.

The National Archives, the federal agency that oversees presidential records, spent much of 2021 attempting to retrieve boxes of records that its officials had been told were in the White House residence at the end of the Trump presidency.

Cannon directed Trump's aide not to go through the boxes because it was unclear what they included but Trump chose to go through boxes himself in December, as reported by a person familiar with the move, and the archives were sent to be retrieved a month later. Upon retrieval, the boxes included 184 classified documents. That prompted the Justice Department to conduct an investigation and conclude that Trump might not have returned all the material in his possession.

Moreover, on Thursday, the House committee investigating is expected to hold its final full-scale public session on Jan. 6. The panel has stated its intentions to release additional information about Trump's mental state during the turbulent post-election period, as well as his pivotal role in the fight to maintain power despite his loss to President Joe Biden.