Just weeks before beginning his post-presidential assignment for then-President Donald Trump, White House valet Walt Nauta was escorted from the grounds and reassigned to a new post with curtailed security clearance by Navy officials in response to claims of fraternization, adultery, harassment and inappropriate sexual conduct, including "revenge porn," against the Navy enlistee, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told The Daily Beast.
Three female servicemembers made the claims against Nauta, the sources said, noting that the women first reported his conduct, which had been occurring for years, to supervisors in spring 2021.
The initial complaints arose after a woman reported an "inappropriate relationship between a senior person and a junior person" on a "command climate survey" around April 2021, one of the sources with direct knowledge told The Daily Beast. Given his high rank in the White House detail's leadership, Nauta was among the Navy officials briefed on the complaint, the source said, but the response did not name Nauta. A follow-up inquiry later identified the Trump aide and two inappropriate romantic relationships with two other women. The source told The Daily Beast that Nauta was removed from the White House after admitting to the relationships in a White House interview.
"[I]t's unclear whether the Navy officially charged Nauta with any violations, or whether all parties were content to let him quickly and quietly retire without further incident," The Daily Beast reports. When approached for comment by the outlet, a spokesperson for Trump's campaign, in a statement, did not deny the allegations but characterized them as a politically motivated effort to disparage Nauta. The Trump aide also faces seven federal charges in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, where he's accused of obstructing government efforts to retrieve highly sensitive national security material from the former president's resort club.
