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‘Quelle Surprise’: Trump Criminal Co-Defendant Pushes for Court Delay – Just as Legal Experts Predicted
Walt Nauta, Donald Trump’s former Naval presidential valet turned Mar-a-Lago body man who was criminally indicted with the ex-president on multiple charges related to mishandling of classified documents, including obstruction and concealment, on Monday filed for a delay in the case, noting “Counsel for President Donald J. Trump does not oppose this request.”
Nauta has already caused a delay in the judicial proceedings by first claiming the weather delayed his flight to Florida, causing his arraignment to be delayed – a claim rejected by at least one expert who charged that Nauta had “squandered the time he was given to find local counsel. Had he done that, the arraignment would have gone forward,” even without him. His arraignment was again delayed because he still had not retained legal counsel in Florida.
And now he again is asking for a delay in a pretrial hearting scheduled for July 14, according to Lawfare’s Anna Bower.
“Defendant Nauta was indicted on June 8, 2023, in this District, despite the fact that the investigation leading to his indictment had long been conducted by a Grand Jury empaneled in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia,” the motion filed by Nauta’s attorney reads.
“At all times relevant to this investigation, Defendant Nauta has been represented by an attorney licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia,” the motion claims. “With little notice to Defendant Nauta, the operative indictment in this matter was returned in this District and only recently, on Wednesday, July 5, 2023, did Defendant Nauta retain local counsel, Sasha Dadan.”
The DOJ, as Politico’s Kyle Cheney reports, immediately responded, opposing the delay.
“Defendant Waltine Nauta has submitted to chambers a motion to continue the pretrial conference the Court has scheduled for July 14, 2023 at 10:00 a.m.,” their motion reads. “He seeks the continuance because one of his attorneys, Stanley Woodward, will be in trial in the District of Columbia that week and unable to attend the hearing in person. Nauta does not indicate when Mr. Woodward would be available to appear at such a conference. Nor does he explain why his other counsel of record, Sasha Dadan, is not capable of handling the proceeding. An indefinite continuance is unnecessary, will inject additional delay in this case, and is contrary to the public interest. The government therefore opposes this motion.”
MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin offers some colorful context, saying that “the Special Counsel’s office is all but accusing Woodward of lying. He says he told them he opposed their motion to have this hearing; they say he explicitly told them he did *not* oppose it.”
And, “beyond his beef with the Special Counsel, Woodward also is picking his first fight with Judge Cannon, insisting her order that local counsel be prepared to adequately represent the defendant finds no support in the local rules for the admission of out-of-district lawyers.”
On the point that Trump’s legal team does not oppose the delay, Rubin sardonically exclaims, “Quelle surprise.”
Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, an MSNBC/NBC News legal analyst, wonders if Nauta’s lawyers are “serving their client’s interests or Trump’s? So far, Nauta’s role has been to delay things.”
READ MORE: GOP Presidential Candidate Calls for Ending US Citizens’ Automatic Right to Vote at 18
Vance had predicted this delay, and others that may come, in her Substack newsletter Sunday night.
“Trump’s valet, and now co-defendant, Walt Nauta, finally got arraigned last Thursday after a three week delay, which of course, pushes back other items on the court’s calendar,” she began.
She adds, “a proposal from Trump to delay until after the election…is inevitably coming.”
Judge Aileen Cannon’s “current order calls for in limine motions to be filed by July 24, 2023, with a calendar call to consider the motions set for August 8, 2023. The trial date is still set for August 14, 2023. Of course, none of that is happening,” says Vance.
Discussing Nauta’s attorney, Vance wrote, “Dadan’s appearance in court for Nauta raises questions, especially in light of reporting suggesting that one of Trump’s PACs is paying for Nauta’s legal representation. No matter who pays for a criminal defense lawyer, their obligation is to the client, but there are plenty of former U.S. Attorneys and Assistant United States attorneys in the Southern District of Florida, with lots of federal experience and a strong understanding of the ethical obligations invoked when a third party pays the cost of legal representation in a criminal case, who would presumably be delighted to give Mr. Nauta the representation he deserves.”
“Instead, he has Ms. Dadan, who has great credentials for the work she does, but not necessarily for a case like this. Will Nauta’s team represent his interests if a point in time comes when they diverge from Trump’s, as they almost inevitably will in the course of the prosecution?”
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
