Court date postponed for Trump's valet Walt Nauta

MIAMI -- A court appearance was postponed Tuesday for a Donald Trump valet who's charged with helping the former president hide classified documents that the Justice Department wanted back.

A lawyer for the valet, Walt Nauta, told a judge that Nauta had been unable to find a Florida-based attorney. He also said Nauta was stuck in Newark, New Jersey, after his scheduled flight down to Florida for the arraignment sat on the tarmac for hours and then was canceled.

The lawyer, Stanley Woodward, said Nauta expressed his apologies to the court for not being present.

"Mr. Nauta takes very seriously the charges that he is facing," he said.

As a result, a federal magistrate judge, Edwin Torres, pushed Tuesday's scheduled arraignment back until July 6.

FILE - Walt Nauta, left, takes a phone from Former President Donald Trump during the LIV Golf Pro-Am at Trump National Golf Club, May 25, 2023, in Sterling, Va. Nauta is set to be arraigned on charges that he helped the former president hide classified documents that the Justice Department wanted back. Nauta was charged earlier this month alongside Trump in a 38-count indictment filed by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

FILE - Walt Nauta, left, takes a phone from Former President Donald Trump during the LIV Golf Pro-Am at Trump National Golf Club, May 25, 2023, in Sterling, Va. Nauta is set to be arraigned on charges that he helped the former president hide classified documents that the Justice Department wanted back. Nauta was charged earlier this month alongside Trump in a 38-count indictment filed by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Nauta was charged earlier this month alongside Trump in a 38-count indictment filed by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith. Trump pleaded not guilty earlier this month to 37 counts related to the alleged mishandling of classified documents kept at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

The indictment accuses Nauta of conspiring with Trump to conceal records he had taken with him from the White House after this term ended in January 2021.

Prosecutors allege Nauta, at the former president's direction, moved boxes of documents bearing classification markings so they would not be found by a Trump lawyer who was tasked with searching the home for classified records to be returned to the government. That, prosecutors said, resulted in a false representation to the Justice Department that a "diligent search" for classified documents had been done and that all documents responsive to a subpoena had been returned.

Meanwhile, on Monday, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon denied a Justice Department request to file under seal the names of 84 potential witnesses it wants Trump, the front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential race, to be prohibited from discussing the case with as it moves forward in court.

She said that, in her view, the Justice Department did not explain why it needed to file the list with the court or why it was necessary to seal the list from public view.

She also scheduled a pretrial conference for July 14 to discuss matters related to the Classified Information Procedures Act.

And last week, the Justice Department proposed a Dec. 11 trial date for Trump, requesting a postponement from a judge's initial date in August. Cannon told defense lawyers to respond to that request by July 6.

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Tucker reported from Washington.