Federal prosecutors are pressuring key Trump aides to testify against the former president in the Mar-a-Lago raid case.
According to the New York Times, prosecutors are pressuring Kash Patel, a Trump loyalist, and Walt Nauta, the Trump aide who moved boxes at Mar-a-Lago, to testify.
Biden’s corrupt Justice Department is building an obstruction case against Trump based on his aides moving boxes of his presidential records after the former president received a subpoena for the classified documents stored at Mar-a-Lago.
According to leaks to the Washington Post and New York Times, Trump staffers moved Mar-a-Lago boxes after Trump was issued a subpoena in May.
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According to The Washington Post, The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, the claim from Trump’s worker is corroborated by security footage.
The Washington Post identified the key witness as Walt Nauta, a 39-year-old who worked valet for Trump and served as a personal staffer at Mar-a-Lago.
The Wall Street Journal identified the second staffer in recent weeks.
“The aides, Walt Nauta and Will Russell, are witnesses in the Justice Department’s investigation into the handling of presidential and classified records taken from the White House but aren’t formally cooperating with the probe,” The Wall Street Journal reported citing “people familiar with the matter.”
Federal prosecutors may use different tactics to get their testimonies.
Feds may offer them immunity, charge them, offer them cooperation agreements or just give up, the Times reported.
The New York Times reported:
Federal prosecutors investigating former President Donald J. Trump’s handling of national security documents he took with him from the White House have ratcheted up their pressure in recent weeks on key witnesses in the hopes of gaining their testimony, according to two people briefed on the matter.
At the same time, the prosecutors are trying to force a longtime aide and ally to Mr. Trump, Kash Patel, to answer questions before a grand jury about how the documents were taken to Mar-a-Lago and how Mr. Trump, his aides and his lawyers dealt with requests from the government to return them, according to a person briefed on the matter.
Mr. Patel was designated by Mr. Trump this year as one of his representatives to the National Archives and Records Administration to deal with his presidential records, particularly in relation to materials from the investigation into whether Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign had ties to Russia.
Shortly after the F.B.I. executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago in August to reclaim the classified documents, Mr. Patel publicly proclaimed that the former president had declassified the records before leaving office. But Mr. Patel refused to answer many questions this month before a grand jury in Washington hearing evidence about Mr. Trump’s handling of the documents, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, according to a person briefed on the matter.
In response, prosecutors asked a top federal judge in Washington to force Mr. Patel to testify — a move fought by Mr. Patel’s lawyers, who are concerned the government wants to use Mr. Patel’s own statements to incriminate him. CNN reported on Thursday that Mr. Patel had appeared before a grand jury.
The efforts to gain the testimony of Mr. Nauta and Mr. Patel demonstrate how department officials will have to make decisions in the coming weeks and months about whether to charge the witnesses, offer them cooperation agreements, grant them immunity or give up on trying to obtain their testimony, according to the people briefed on the matter.
