Jonathan Turley: This indictment is a ‘serious threat,’ ‘significant impact’
Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley tells ‘America’s Newsroom’ that this indictment is a ‘different ballgame’ from Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s indictment against Trump.
A close aide to former President Donald Trump has been indicted in Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation of the former president’s handling of classified documents, two sources confirm to Fox News.
Walt Nauta, who served as a Trump personal aide and valet in the White House and later at Mar-a-Lago, was the second to be indicted in Smith's investigation, following Trump's indictment on Thursday night.
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The exact charges Nauta faces was not immediately clear.
The indictment from a federal grand jury in Miami remains under seal, and there was no immediate confirmation from the Justice Department.
Sources told Fox News that Nauta was seen on surveillance video moving boxes of sensitive material from a storage area at a time when the government had sought information about those documents. At some point, he reportedly had stopped speaking with investigators.
A Secret Service agent and a security guard officer guard the Mar-a-Lago home of former U.S. President Donald Trump, in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. March 31, 2023. (REUTERS/Ricardo Arduengo)
It is unclear whether other current or former Trump aides or associates could be charged in the classified documents investigation.
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The indictment of Nauta comes after Trump, the current front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, was indicted on at least seven counts involving obstruction of justice, conspiracy, and illegal retention of classified government material.
Trump was ordered to appear in federal court in Miami on Tuesday. The indictment remains unsealed.
Smith was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022 to investigate Trump’s alleged improper retention of classified records at his Mar-a-Lago home.
Former President Donald Trump arrives at Trump Tower, Monday, April 3, 2023, in New York. Trump arrived in New York on Monday for his expected booking and arraignment the following day on charges arising from hush money payments during his 2016 campaign. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
The Justice Department had been investigating the matter after the FBI conducted an unprecedented raid on his private residence in August 2022.
NARA told Congress in February 2022 that Trump took 15 boxes of presidential records to his personal residence in Florida. NARA recovered the 15 boxes from Mar-a-Lago and "identified items marked as classified national security information within the boxes." The matter was referred to the Justice Department by NARA.
Those boxes allegedly contained "classified national security information," and official correspondence between Trump and foreign heads of state.
Classified material that was reportedly confiscated by the FBI during the FBI's raid in August included a letter to Trump from former President Obama, a letter from Kim Jong Un, a birthday dinner menu and a cocktail napkin.
Trump last year said the National Archives did not "find" the documents, but that they were "given, upon request." Sources close to the former president said he had been cooperating and there was "no need" for the raid.
Former president Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. (Charles Trainor Jr./Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The affidavit said that the FBI's investigation had "established that documents bearing classification markings, which appear to contain National Defense Information (NDI), were among the materials contained" in the 15 boxes Trump initially turned over to the NARA.
The FBI said it had "probable cause to believe" that additional records containing classified information, including National Defense Information, would be found on the premises of Mar-a-Lago home, beyond what he had previously turned over to the NARA, according to the unsealed and heavily-redacted affidavit used to justify the raid.
The government conducted the search in response to what it believed to be a violation of federal laws: 18 USC 793 — gathering, transmitting or losing defense information; 18 USC 2071 — concealment, removal or mutilation; and 18 USC 1519 — destruction, alteration or falsification of records in federal investigations.
The allegation of "gathering, transmitting or losing defense information" falls under the Espionage Act.
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