The Washington Post reported Wednesday that an unnamed Trump employee had provided critical evidence to investigators — telling them that he moved boxes at the former president’s request at a time when the government was seeking the return of classified material, including some highly sensitive items, from Mar-a-Lago.
The witness account was corroborated by security-camera footage, the people familiar with the case said, giving investigators key evidence of Trump’s behavior as they probe potential crimes including obstruction, destruction of government records or mishandling classified information.
Hours after The Post’s report was published, the New York Times reported that surveillance footage from Mar-a-Lago showed Nauta moving boxes.
A lawyer for Nauta declined to comment to The Post on Thursday, and Nauta did not respond to a call seeking comment.
The information Nauta provided to FBI agents, and the footage described to The Post, offer the most direct account to date of Trump’s actions and instructions leading up to the FBI’s Aug. 8 search of his Florida property.
The search came after the Justice Department demanded the return of all classified documents from Mar-a-Lago. Aides to Trump handed over 38 documents in June in response to a grand jury subpoena, but FBI agents found 103 more when they returned to Mar-a-Lago in August.
When FBI agents first interviewed Nauta, he denied any role in moving boxes or sensitive documents, the people familiar with the situation said in interviews before Nauta’s name became public. But as investigators gathered more evidence, they questioned him a second time and he told a starkly different story — that Trump instructed him to move the boxes, these people said.
Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich declined to answer specific questions about those assertions on Wednesday, instead charging that the Biden administration “has weaponized law enforcement and fabricated a Document Hoax in a desperate attempt to retain political power.”
Asked about Nauta’s account on Thursday, Budowich questioned the legality of the court-approved search of Mar-a-Lago and accused the Biden administration of “colluding with the media through targeted leaks in an overt and illegal act of intimidation and tampering.”
The people familiar with the Mar-a-Lago investigation said agents have gathered evidence indicating that Trump told people to move boxes to his residence after his advisers received the subpoena. That description of events was corroborated by the security-camera footage showing people moving the boxes, the people said.
Separately, FBI agents interviewed another key figure in the documents case last week: Christina Bobb, a lawyer who signed a June letter saying that a “diligent search” had been conducted for classified records at Mar-a-Lago and that all such documents had been given back to the government.
Bobb, whose interview with the FBI was first reported by NBC News, told agents that she signed the letter at the request of other lawyers and was not aware of the details of the search, a person familiar with the matter said. The person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose private conversations, said Bobb told the FBI…
Read More: Key Mar-a-Lago witness said to be former White House employee
