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| Photo Credit: AP. |
An employee of former President Donald Trump, a Navy veteran who followed the former president to Florida after his role as a valet in the Trump White House said he moved classified documents at Mar-a-Lago at Trump’s request, according to a report by the Washington Post.
Legal
experts now believe there are enough evidence to indict the former president
over mishandling of classified records and possible obstruction of justice.
Walt Nauta,
a key witness in the ongoing investigation by the Justice Department into the
removal of classified records from the White House made the revelation, people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss
an ongoing investigation told The Washington Post.
The 39-year-old
previously served as a valet for Trump in the Oval Office suite, according to
former White House staffers, The Washington Post reported. The Navy veteran
also served as a personal aide at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida home
after he left the White House.
Nauta said
he moved boxes of documents at the request of the former President when the
government was seeking the return of classified materials, some of which were
highly classified from Mar-a-Lago.
Security
camera footage corroborated the witness account and hence providing
investigators with badly needed evidence as they probe possible violation of
the Espionage Act as well as obstruction, destruction of government records,
and mishandling of classified documents, people familiar with the situation
told The Washington Post.
Following the
bombshell report, legal experts believe there is now enough evidence to indict
the former president with crimes.
FBI agents searched
Trump’s home after the Justice Department demanded the return of all classified
documents from Mar-a-Lago which aides to the former president responded and
returned over 38 documents in June after a grand jury subpoena.
But
following witness testimonies and other intelligence the FBI convinced that
some documents were still held up at the facility conducted a search on August
8. Agents discovered documents clearly marked as classified, including “top
secret” documents. People familiar with the
matter told The Washington Post that Nauta initially denied knowledge of the
movement but he admitted moving the boxes at Trump’s instance during a second
interview.
The people
familiar with the Mar-a-Lago investigation said agents have gathered evidence
which showed that Trump told people to move boxes to his resident after his
advisers received the subpoena, a description corroborated by the security
camera footage showing people moving the boxes.
"Astonishing
level of evidence. That would convince jurors. Witnesses have told federal
investigators: After subpoena for classified docs, 'Trump told people to move
boxes to his residence at the property'! 'Corroborated by the security-camera
footage,'" former Pentagon special counsel Ryan Goodman wrote on Twitter.
Former federal
prosecutor Renato Mariotti said the Trump employee changed his story across
multiple interviews with federal investigators
to admit he handled sensitive material when moving the boxes in
Mar-a-Lago, the Washington Examiner reported. Marotti noted that the subpoena
came in May before Trump reportedly gave the directive to reposition the boxes
"The
employee is unlikely to be charged if he continues to cooperate. But his
testimony suggests that Trump tried to keep documents from the DOJ, which had
already served a grand jury subpoena for the documents *before* the employee
was ordered to move them," Mariotti tweeted.
"This
increases the chance of Trump being indicted after the upcoming election unless
Garland is dead set against it," tweeted former federal prosecutor Richard
Signorelli.
Former prosecutor Andrew Weissmann tweeted: "Between this and the testimony of Alex Cannon (to name just two recent developments) Trump's MAL goose is cooked. As I have oft said, the issue is no longer the proof, but DOJ's will. Trump worker told FBI about moving MAL boxes on Trump's orders.”