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Special counsel Jack Smith’s report on President-elect Donald Trump will be released to the public, Department of Justice (DOJ) officials said on Jan. 8. Attorney General Merrick Garland intends to release part one of the report, which deals with Trump, “in furtherance of the public interest in informing a co-equal branch and the public regarding this significant matter,” officials said in a court filing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. Smith has already transmitted the report to Garland, officials said. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Tuesday had ordered the department not to release the report...

Special counsel Jack Smith on Monday withdrew his appeals request for his Florida classified documents case against President-elect Donald Trump's co-defendants.The attorney dropped his appeal against Trump last month after Trump won reelection to the White House, citing a Justice Department policy not to prosecute sitting presidents. Trump will be sworn in next month. Smith previously accused Trump in 2022 of improperly taking classified documents from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. But the case was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in July, who cited the constitutionality of Smith's appointment as special counsel.Trump and the...

Police say a man claimed to have a bomb outside a rally for former President Donald Trump in metro Grand Rapids and that he insisted it was the “real deal” — though it was not. As he appeared in a Grandville courtroom via video linkup from a jail cell Monday afternoon, Steven William Nauta, 65, of Sand Lake, acknowledged he could hear the judge and that he understood the charges against him and his rights. He held his head down for the majority of his arraignment. At one point, he made profane hand gestures, but apologized when the judge warned...

One of the co-defendants in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case would like to modify a February motion to dismiss the indictment in light of what they say is a new argument by the government. In a three-page notice of supplemental authority filed Friday, attorneys for Waltine “Walt” Nauta, former President Donald Trump’s personal valet, say the government recently shifted the statutory authority relied on for count 38 of the superseding indictment. In turn, the defense says, they are providing additional citations that deal with the statutory change. The notice argues, relatively tersely, that special counsel Jack Smith and his team...

Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 @julie_kelly2 Newly unredacted FBI interview btw FBI and unidentified Mar-a-Lago employee from Jan 2023 shows agents trying to get information about the personal life of Walt Nauta, Trump's close personal aide DOJ wanted to flip.

Judge Aileen Cannon on Wednesday unsealed more records related to Jack Smith’s classified documents case against Trump. The newly unsealed documents detail allegations that Jack Smith’s prosecutor Jay Bratt threatened Stanley Woodward, an attorney for Trump’s valet driver Walt Nauta. Jay Bratt tried to bribe Stanley Woodward and threatened him with a sinking judicial nomination if he didn’t get Walt Nauta to testify against Trump. “Upon Mr. Woodward’s arrival at Main Justice, he was led to a conference room where Mr. Bratt awaited with what appeared to be a folder containing information about Mr. Woodward. Mr. Bratt thereupon told Mr....

Judge Aileen Cannon ordered the public release of the FBI’s interview of Trump’s valet driver Walt Nauta. Walt Nauta is a former White House employee and Navy veteran who worked valet for Trump and served as a personal staffer at Mar-a-Lago. According to the transcript of the May 2022 interview, the FBI interrogated Trump’s aide Walt Nauta – without Trump’s knowledge. The FBI agents approached Walt Nauta and asked for a voluntary interview under the guise of national security interest (similar to the General Flynn ambush). “On May 26, 2022, NAUTA participated in a voluntary interview with the FBI. During...

Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen says Walt Nauta, the valet to the former president charged in the classified and sensitive documents case, should look out for himself and not think that Trump will protect him. Cohen said in an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Thursday that Nauta believes the former president will protect him if he is loyal and not “throw him under the bus.” But he said Nauta should be able to learn from Cohen’s own experience, and those of other former Trump allies, that Trump can’t be trusted to protect his associates.

Stanley Woodward, a lawyer for former President Donald Trump's valet, reportedly claims in court papers that a top federal prosecutor brought up his application for a judgeship while trying to gain the valet's cooperation in the Mar-a-Lago documents case. In a report in The Guardian newspaper, Woodward was identified as the lawyer. He represents Walt Nauta — the valet who has been under scrutiny over his accounts of whether he moved boxes of documents at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in South Florida, according to NBC News. The Guardian said Woodward's claim was made in a letter filed under seal with the...