Former President Donald Trump drinks a Diet Coke during the ProAm of the LIV Golf Team Championship. Photo / AP
Former President Donald Trump drinks a Diet Coke during the ProAm of the LIV Golf Team Championship. Photo / AP
Described by Donald Trump as “strong, brave and a great patriot”, Navy veteran Waltine “Walt” Nauta is arguably the Republican frontrunner’s most loyal aide.
Once responsible for fetching a Diet Coke for Trump when he pressed his dedicated button in the Oval Office, the former White House military valet, 40, now faces six federal charges - four of which carry maximum prison sentences of 20 years and a fine of up to US$250,000.
Before the indictment was unsealed on Friday, Trump accused the US Justice Department of “trying to destroy” Nauta’s life, “like the lives of so many others, hoping that he will say bad things about Trump”.
“He is strong, brave and a great patriot,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Nauta was reportedly with Trump in his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club this week.
Born in Agat on the Pacific island of Guam, Nauta enlisted in the US Navy in 2001, before ascending to become a Senior Chief Culinary Specialist in 2011.
Following the Trump election defeat in 2020, Nauta was the only aide to relocate from Washington DC to follow the former president to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Boxes contained classified documents, many of them top secret, mixed in with miscellaneous newspapers, magazines and personal correspondence, according to the FBI. Photo / AP
He became an executive assistant to Trump in August 2021 after resigning from the military, a role for which he is reportedly paid a salary of $120,000 to predominantly run personal errands for Trump.
“He is very sheepish and asks permission for everything. If he makes a mistake, he’s mortified and apologetic. He is very, very formal with the president, and very stoic. ‘Yes, sir. Understood.’ He doesn’t say a ton,” one adviser told the Washington Post.
“He’s willing to do whatever, he’s a valet. The valet world has never left him.”
Nauta faces six criminal charges, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document, and concealing a document in a federal investigation.
A server pours a Diet Coke into a glass for President Donald Trump before a working lunch hosted by the United Nations. Photo / AP
He is also accused of lying to FBI agents about his knowledge of the boxes in May 2022 as well as scheming to conceal a document.
According to the indictment, Nauta is alleged to have moved 64 boxes which contained classified documents from a storage room to hide them from Trump’s lawyer, the FBI and the grand jury, under Trump’s direction.
Nauta’s family in Guam previously described him as a “good boy” who moved to the US “to enjoy his life, not to cause problems”.
His aunt Elly Nauta told the Washington Post he did everything “at the direction of the former president.”
“All he was instructed was to put the boxes where they were supposed to go,” Nauta said.
