Unsealed court filings in the federal classified documents investigation show that former President Donald Trump’s valet and personal aide Walter Nauta was promised he’d be pardoned for lying to the FBI if Trump won the 2024 election.
Included in the filings, released Monday, are redacted interview notes with an FBI witness, identified only as “Person 16." The witness, who was interviewed in November 2022, is described as someone who worked in the Trump White House, CNN reported.
“NAUTA was also told that even if he gets charged with lying to the FBI, FPOTUS will pardon him in 2024,” reads the summary.
In June 2023, Nauta was charged with lying to the FBI and obstructing the investigation by special counsel Jack Smith. Trump himself was also charged with obstruction, along with mishandling classified national defense information. Both Nauta and Trump have pleaded not guilty.
The FBI interview summary does not detail how the witness, who refused to be recorded, came to know about the alleged offer to pardon Nauta. It indicates that the witness hasn’t spoken to Nauta since Trump was elected in 2016.
But, following the end of Trump’s term in 2020, the witness visited the former president’s Mar-a-Lago numerous times, according to the summary. During one such visit, in November 2021, the witness purportedly advised Trump to give up “whatever” he had back to the National Archives.
“Don’t give them a noble reason to indict you, because they will,” the witness said to Trump, according to their account.
In August 2022, the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago to recover classified material in August 2022.
