Who is Walt Nauta, the aide charged alongside Donald Trump?

By Chelsea BaileyBBC News, Washington

An aide to former President Donald Trump has been charged alongside him with alleged mishandling of national security documents.

Walt Nauta, a US Navy veteran, was a White House military valet to Mr Trump and joined him as an assistant at his Florida estate after he left office.

Mr Nauta, 40, did not enter a plea during a hearing in Miami on Tuesday, and will be arraigned at a later date.

He faces six criminal counts punishable by up to 90 years in prison.

He is charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding records, concealing documents, scheming to conceal facts from investigators and making false or misleading statements.

Mr Nauta will not need to enter a plea until 27 June because of legal technicalities - he did not have a local lawyer with him in court of Tuesday. He was released alongside Mr Trump without having to post bond and was ordered not to talk to other witnesses.

According to the indictment, Mr Trump directed his aide to move boxes that were a focus of the investigation from a storage room at the Mar-a-Lago resort. He was allegedly told to conceal them from Mr Trump's attorney and the FBI.

Prosecutors have said Mr Nauta can be seen on surveillance video removing the boxes from the storage room ahead of an imminent search of the Palm Beach property, and later moving some of them back - one of at least five times he moved boxes in and out of the room.

They further allege that, in a May 2022 interview with the FBI, Mr Nauta lied that he did not know how the boxes had arrived on site, where they were being stored or whether Mr Trump had intentionally kept any.

On his Truth Social platform on Friday, the former president defended Mr Nauta and accused officials at the US Department of Justice of "trying to destroy his life" and "hoping that he will say bad things about 'Trump'".

Born in Agat, in the US territory of Guam, Waltine Torre Nauta enlisted in the US Navy in 2001.

Navy records show he ascended through the ranks to become a Senior Chief Culinary Specialist, in 2021.

By then, he had been serving in the military-staffed cafeteria for the Trump White House.

The president later elevated him to a role as his military aide, a position similar to a personal valet and sometimes referred to as a "body-man".

Mr Nauta retired from the Navy when Mr Trump left the White House. According to the indictment, he became an executive assistant to Mr Trump in August 2021.

Unlike other aides, who sought to remain in Washington DC after Mr Trump lost the 2020 election, Mr Nauta relocated to Florida and continued to serve as an aide to the former president at Mar-a-Lago.

He has been described as a low-key but constant presence in the Trump White House, and a trusted, well-liked aide in Mr Trump's post-presidential orbit.

The New York Times reported that Mr Nauta is viewed as a Trump loyalist and does not appear to be playing a "side game" in exchange for prosecutorial leniency.

When the BBC contacted some of Mr Nauta's relatives in Guam about the charges, they seemed stunned by the news.

Reached by social media on Monday, his cousin, Lani Nauta, said the family had only just regained electricity after the typhoon that struck the island two weeks ago.

She ended the conversation to call other members of her family and inform them of the indictment.

In an interview with the Washington Post before Mr Nauta was charged, relatives in Guam described him as a "good boy" who moved to the United States "to enjoy his life, not to cause problems".

Pauline Torre, his mother, said the fact that her son had been selected to serve the president "says it all".

But his aunt said 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," Elly Nauta told the Post.

Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty in this case to all the charges against him.

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