Walt Nauta takes a phone from Former President Donald Trump during the LIV Golf Pro-Am at Trump National Golf Club, Thursday, May 25, 2023, in Sterling, Va. When Trump appears in federal court in Miami, he will likely be joined on the witness stand by a man well-practiced in standing by his side: Nauta, his valet turned co-conspirator. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
After encouraging at least one government witness to disclose his identity changing her mind in response to a threat from special counsel Jack Smith, the judge in the Mar-a-Lago case has ordered Donald Trump’s valet and co-defendant to file a redacted version of his June 2022 grand jury transcript. and then U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on April 9 said that the special counsel’s redaction requests were significant, but the prosecution’s arguments were strong enough to convince her not to reveal government witnesses, at least for now, under pressure from the appeals court. Three days later, the Special Counsel’s Office and attorneys for Trump’s co-defendants, valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira, faced off in court for just over two hours to discuss the need for continued sealing of certain grand jury materials.
On Thursday, Cannon advised both sides to follow the “instructions” she provided during the hearing, which in Nauta’s case meant submitting a redacted version of his June 21, 2022, grand jury transcript,
from before he was identified as a “target.” Nauta claims that prosecutors retaliated against him because he refused to testify after being identified. Nauta's claim has been called “meritless” and “deeply flawed.” The judge ordered Nauta to file his grand jury transcript, “on or before April 24, 2024,” with government witness names “anonymized,” as she explained in her decision to reverse herself.
“Defendant Nauta shall: a. Redact from the grand jury transcript (a) names of potential government witnesses and ancillary names, replacing those names as applicable with the anonymized labels provided in the Index [ECF No. 454-1 (sealed)], and (b) any personal identifying information [see ECF No. 438 p. 16]; and b. Publicly file the grand jury transcript with the redactions,” the order said.
The judge also instructed Jack Smith to submit a sealed “status report on the landscape of grand jury materials and proceedings implicated in this case” by April 26, in line with her previous instructions.
The status report should “clearly identify” grand jury materials that have been included in discovery and in defense motions to dismiss, and discuss “[p]ending petitions in any other district for authorization to use or disclose grand
jury materials in this case.”
Cannon also instructed Smith to state whether there is a “requirement”
according to Rule 6(e)
for “ongoing secrecy of grand jury materials” that the defense is using to support its pretrial motions and to disclose “[a]ny directives” allowing Smith to publicly “cite from” Nauta’s transcript. Read the order The judge in the Mar-a-Lago case has directed Donald Trump’s valet and co-defendant Walt Nauta to submit a censored version of his June 2022 grand jury transcript.
Read the order here.