Donald Trump’s ex-personal assistant Walt Nauta, charged with complicity in the negligent handling of state secrets after the former Republican president’s departure from the White House, pleaded not guilty in federal court on Thursday. Florida.
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“He pleads not guilty to all counts,” said Stanley Woodward, attorney for the accused, during a brief hearing in Miami.
Dressed in a navy blue suit, Mr. Nauta, 40, is accused of having endangered the security of the United States by helping Donald Trump to keep and hide confidential documents, including military plans or information on nuclear weapons, in a bathroom or storage room of the billionaire’s luxury residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
This soldier, attached to the presidency during Mr. Trump’s term before leaving the administration to continue working alongside him after his defeat in 2020, faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of the most charges. more serious against him.
The 77-year-old former president also pleaded not guilty to the charges against him in mid-June and now faces a historic and potentially very damaging trial for his campaign for the 2024 US presidential election.
He is notably accused of having refused to return the documents despite court injunctions, which earned him the charge of “illegal retention of information relating to national security”, but also “obstructing justice” and ” false testimony”.
Surrounded by investigations, Donald Trump has already been indicted by New York State justice for several accounting frauds in connection with a payment made before the 2016 presidential election to silence an X film actress.
This criminal trial should be organized at the beginning of 2024.
The former tenant of the White House, currently the big favorite in the Republican primaries, has also not finished with legal problems. A Georgia prosecutor is due to announce the outcome of her investigation into his pressure to try to change the 2020 presidential election by September.
A special prosecutor is investigating his role in the attack carried out by his supporters against the Capitol, January 6, 2021