In a court filing last week, an attorney for Donald Trump’s co-defendant Walt Nauta reportedly claimed that a federal prosecutor offered him a judgeship if he could convince Nauta to cooperate with the investigation into Trump’s mishandling of classified documents, The UK Guardian reported.
According to the filing, after Nauta had been interviewed by prosecutors last year, his attorney Stanley Woodward was called to a meeting at the Department of Justice where he met with several DOJ officials working on the investigation, including Jay Bratt, the chief of the counterintelligence section.
Bratt urged Woodward to get Nauta to cooperate with the investigation, saying the longtime Trump aide would likely face charges of making false statements. However, Woodward disputed the charge.
Bratt reportedly said that he didn’t believe Woodward was a “Trump guy” and “he would do the right thing.” Bratt then mentioned that he was aware that Woodward had applied to be a superior court judge in Washington DC, according to the letter.
Based on this conversation, Woodward is alleging that Jay Bratt was suggesting that Woodward’s application would be considered favorably if he could convince Nauta to cooperate with the Justice Department.
While there may have been a perfectly innocuous reason for Bratt bringing up Woodward’s application, it reportedly unnerved the attorney enough that after the meeting at Justice, he recounted it to some associates.
Woodward also informed the DOJ after the meeting that he would have no further contact with Justice unless Nauta was charged or received an immunity deal.
Walt Nauta was indicted on one count of “willfully” and knowingly” making a “materially” false statement and representation about his involvement in the attempt to hide the documents from the government.
Nauta, Trump’s longtime valet, did not enter a plea at last Tuesday’s arraignment as he still did not have a Florida attorney to represent him in the case, according to the Washington Post.
Nauta is scheduled to be arraigned on June 27.
