Donald Trump’s aide and co-defendant in the federal secrets case was told he would be eligible for a pardon if the former president was elected to a second term in the White House, according to court documents.
The alleged pardon promise was conveyed to the FBI by a cooperating witness in the case in November 2022, a year before a Florida grand jury indicted Trump and Walt Nauta on charges of withholding classified White House documents. .
“What Nauta-san told me was, [Trump’s] “People claimed the investigation was slow, that it was politically motivated, and that it was ‘no big deal,'” the FBI said. Heavily edited notes It said the information came from an interview with a former Trump White House official, identified only as “Person 16.”
“Nauta also said that even if he was indicted for lying to the F.B.I. [Trump] We will pardon him in 2024,” the witness told the station.
The document says “Person 16” is a former Trump White House staffer who had “unfettered access” to President Trump and the Oval Office and had visited the former president’s Mar-a-Lago mansion multiple times since 2021. Are listed.
The witness refused to record the interview with the FBI, fearing retaliation.
“Person 16 refused to record the interview, even though he was advised that not recording the interview was unusual compared to other witness interviews,” the memo states. “Person 16 accepted ‘that risk’ and said having the interview taped ‘was a much bigger risk to him in Trump’s world.'”
It is unclear how the witness learned of Nauta’s purported pardon plan and who passed the information on to Nauta.
According to the Justice Department, during Mr. Nauta’s interview with the FBI a month before the Person 16 incident, the former Navy sailor lied to authorities about the location and movement of a box of White House documents at Mar-a-Lago. That’s what it means.
According to a transcript of the interview, Nauta told FBI agents that he led Trump to believe he was out for a jog rather than talking to employees involved in the classified documents investigation.
Both Mr. Nauta and Mr. Trump have maintained their innocence in the case.
