If you missed it - MAL diet coke goffer who ratted trump out..

[Laura PourMeADrink]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/key-mar-a-lago-witness-said-to-be-former-white-house-employee/ar-AA12W6eV


Walt Nauta is the witness in question, according to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. The 39-year-old worked as a valet for Trump in the Oval Office suite, according to former White House staffers, and served as a personal aide at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s residence and private club in Florida.

Snip

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.


Snip

Nauta is originally from Guam, according to public records. He enlisted in the Navy and eventually became a cook in the White House mess, a small dining facility run by the Navy in the basement of the West Wing. In 2013, he entered a military culinary competition, part of a team representing “presidential food service.”

Not long after Trump took office, Nauta left the mess to become one of Trump’s valets, spending some of his workday in a small passageway that connects the West Wing to a private dining room. From there, he had access to a small refrigerator stocked with Diet Cokes, which he brought to the president in the Oval Office when Trump pressed a call button on his desk, said a former White House staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss activities inside the White House.

Snip

The former staffer described Nauta as friendly and pleasant to Oval Office visitors. In September 2020, Nauta was promoted to senior chief petty officer, a significant career advancement. When Trump left the White House, Nauta decided to join him at Mar-a-Lago. Campaign finance records show that Nauta was placed on the payroll of a Trump political action committee, Save America, in 2021. He was on payroll as recently as August, making $5,227.81 a paycheck, or about $135,000 a year, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

[yardwork]

1. I wonder why he decided to tell the truth now.

[gab13by13]

3. He was identified on surveillance videos.

[stumpysbear]

4. He's smarter than most of Trump's lawyers

and doesn't want to go to jail

[Walleye]

5. Maybe because they showed him the video

[malaise]

7. Ding ding

We have a winner

[W_HAMILTON]

9. Because they caught him dead to rights in a lie, apparently.

[stopdiggin]

11. exactly. when they show you video

of you doing what you said you didn't do ... You change the story. I don't think this can properly be called 'cooperation.' (and I'm not sure if 'ratting out' is also a good descriptor - it's not really ratting, if they already have all the solid goods)

[W_HAMILTON]

13. Yeah, I'm hoping this guy isn't...

... the next in an unfortunately long line of Trump-adjacent people that we suddenly applaud and bend over backwards to thank just because their previous wrongdoings reached a point where they basically had no choice but to finally do the right thing -- or go to jail.

These people are not heroes -- they are enablers.

[usaf-vet]

23. Is it possible that he is still not a U.S. citizen and fears deportation?

In the 1960s, I served with two medics from foreign countries. Who hoped to become U.S. citizens. After their military service. I have lost contact with them, so don't know if they ever got their citizenship papers.

[mjvpi]

25. Guam is a US territory. He is a citizen.

[usaf-vet]

26. Thanks for clarifying that.

[Major Nikon]

21. There's not enough information to conclude he lied originally

It depends on what questions he was asked and how he interpreted them at the time and to what extent he even remembered the incident. The boxes were moved in May and it was almost certainly months before they originally questioned him. They wouldn't have had the video until after the search warrant in August.

Given his position it's doubtful he knew the contents of what he was moving until the FBI provided him with more details.

[W_HAMILTON]

24. Parse it however you want. Fact of the matter is...

...based on this reporting, what he originally told the FBI was wrong.

[Major Nikon]

28. I'm pretty sure it's a fact you don't know what he was asked or what his original response was

Which means what you state as a fact most certainly isn't, but even if it were that doesn't mean he lied.

[W_HAMILTON]

30. It's a FACT based on the reporting...

...whereas your OPINION on the subject is based on nothing and actually contradicts the reporting in question. If you have other reporting or personal information about the case that shows otherwise, feel free to lay it out.

[Major Nikon]

31. Bullshit has been called and you have no answer

If you really want to know what actually happened, read the actual reporting more closely and you'll find Nauta was questioned by the FBI before Aug 8th, which means they did NOT have the security footage available. This means a number of plausible deniability scenarios exist. He may not have remembered moving the boxes weeks or perhaps months before he was asked about it. He may not (and almost certainly didn't) know what was in the boxes and didn't understand what he was being asked. This is very different from them showing him video of moving boxes and asking if that was him in the video, so there's no doubt they would have been asking different questions given the FBI had far more information at that point.

If you have evidence on what was specifically asked and was answered you would have cited it. While the idea you're actually demanding I disprove something you didn't prove to begin with is entertaining, it doesn't really further the conversation much.

[W_HAMILTON]

32. This is reading comprehension that even a third grader would get:

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.

HE DENIED ANY ROLE IN MOVING BOXES...

then...

HE TOLD A STARKLY DIFFERENT STORY...

This is not hard to understand. If you want to claim that isn't enough evidence to say that he lied in a criminal sense, that's fine, but then going far as arguing against my clarified claim that "based on this reporting, what he originally told the FBI was wrong" is downright rejecting the reality of the reporting and/or a lack of reading comprehension that most of us would have surpassed in elementary school. Let's make this really fucking simple:

Did he or did he not first say that he didn't move boxes?

Did he or did he not later admit to moving boxes?

[Demsrule86]

27. There is a video that proves he lied...and ask Martha Stewart about that sort of thing.

[Major Nikon]

29. And you know this how?

Do you somehow have inside information everyone else is lacking?

The video shows he moved the boxes in question and nothing more. It doesn't mean he ever lied about it and the DOJ hasn't even suggested as much.

It's possible he originally lied about it, but it's also quite possible he did not. Spreading baseless rumors about him only serves to impeach his credibility.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

33. Good point! Just glad he admitted to moving boxes when he did

But do wonder what the people know who work there? Is it common knowledge? The docs? They knew the FBI was looking for something right?

[Major Nikon]

37. It's safe to assume everyone questioned would have been provided lawyers

It’s also safe to assume few, if anyone working for Trump would fully cooperate with the FBI.

Nauta was questioned more than once, which suggests the FBI got closer to asking the right questions as they went along and learned more.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

39. And timing is everything... There were three events

Weren't there? First soft demand, subpoena, then search.

[underpants]

2. Coffee boy was out of the picture

Papadopoulos

[Johnny2X2X]

6. Campaign finance violation

"Campaign finance records show that Nauta was placed on the payroll of a Trump political action committee, Save America, in 2021. He was on payroll as recently as August, making $5,227.81 a paycheck, or about $135,000 a year"

You can't pay your employees at your for profit business with campaign finance cash. I'd bet 90% of the payroll at Mar a Lago comes from his Save America PAC. His donors are funding his entire life right now.

We're so far down the rabbit hole that this will barely be a blip, but if a politician had been caught doing this several years ago, it would be headline news, and charges would be swift and severe.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

12. Yes. On campaign reporting docs? My thoughts too

Was that that is how trump creates loyalty. Exorbitant pay for job? Plus a questionable promotion in Navy?

[Irish_Dem]

15. Exactly. This is how Trump ropes people in to commit crimes for him.

[Baitball Blogger]

16. Trump has cracked the code on white collar crime. Scams, grifts etc.

Someone needs to itemize all the ways that he worked the system. Including the part about burying his ex-wife on his golfcourse.

[msfiddlestix]

41. ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ n/t

[bucolic_frolic]

8. Hiding the fed's boxes from the feds is political action, you gotta give them that /nt

[liberalla]

10. !

[dalton99a]

14. Waltine Nauta, the $150,000 valet

Former Guam resident Waltine Nauta (Photo: KUAM News)

[Tanuki]

17. There is a history of Trump offering cushy salaries to ex-aides

to buy their silence. Omarosa was offered a $15k a month "job" with the "campaign" after she was fired from the White House but she refused it and blew the whistle on the practice.

https://nbcpalmsprings.com/2018/08/16/omarosa-releases-secret-tape-of-lara-trump-offering-her-15k-a-month-campaign-job/


Omarosa Manigault Newman, the former reality TV star who became a top White House aide to President Donald Trump, on Thursday released exclusively to MSNBC a secret tape of campaign official Lara Trump offering her a $15,000-a-month job after she was fired from the administration.

The tape — which, according to Manigault Newman was made on Dec. 16, 2017, just days after she had left the White House — appears to corroborate claims she made in her new book about receiving an offer from the president’s re-election campaign. Manigault Newman wrote in her book that the job offer came with the condition of signing a nondisclosure agreement; she said she did not accept it.

On the new tape, Lara Trump says: “It sounds a little like, obviously, that there are some things you’ve got in the back pocket to pull out. Clearly, if you come on board the campaign, like, we can’t have, we got to,” she continues, before Manigault Newman interjects, “Oh, God no.”

“Everything, everybody, positive, right?” Trump continues.

In an interview with MSNBC’s Craig Melvin after the excerpts were aired, Manigault Newman said the recording was proof of “an attempt” by the Trump team “to buy my silence, to censor me, and to pay me off.”

Asked if she saw it as “hush money,” Manigault Newman responded, “Absolutely.”...(more)

[Justice matters.]

20. Enter the Hair Furhair Mob (tm) where criming is a way of living.

And receive $150,000/yr for Lying to Law Enforcement about your mob boss's crimes (and yours too).

[Laura PourMeADrink]

34. Perhaps $150k was considered a fortune to him, we

Don't know. But bet trump did

[llmart]

18. Well, this is surely proof of one important fact.

Diet Coke does NOT help you to lose weight.

[getagrip_already]

19. Chief Petty Officer?

I've never been in the navy, but have been on bases, and that rank is significant. I'll bet a lot of navy E class are really pissed someone would get that by carrying cans of diet coke.

Just another example of not respecting the uniform.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

35. Yes and my mind immediately went to the brass that

Gave him the promotion... But military has to do what president says???

[Roland99]

22. He needs to avoid windows and stay ground-level

[sarcasmo]

36. Diet coke rats out the orange ferret. Imagine how nasty Trump was to Mr. Nauta.

[ecstatic]

38. Say it with me... Everything that trump touches dies....

Sounds like he left a pretty good career to join a criminal enterprise that nearly got him sent to jail. What will he do now?

[Laura PourMeADrink]

40. Something we all seem to forget too ... All the sleepless nights

And heartache and loss he has left in that wake. The people who never got paid, the people who got out-lawyered, the people who are being " blackmailed."