Michael Cohen warns Walt Nauta about Trump’s willingness to ‘throw him under the bus’
Donald Trump's former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen speaks to reporters after a second day of testimony before a grand jury investigating hush money payments he arranged and made on the former president's behalf, Wednesday, March 15, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
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.
“Being the Trumpiest Trumper, he thinks that Donald will protect him and not throw him under the bus,” he said of Nauta.
Nauta this week pleaded not guilty to six charges connected to the documents case, including obstruction of justice.
Cohen, who in 2018 pleaded guilty to tax evasion and campaign finance violations, said he believes Nauta made a poor decision in pleading not guilty.
He said Nauta should look at the case of Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy from his actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
“What happened to Donald taking care of them? What happened to Donald paying their legal fees?” he said.
Cohen said Nauta would be able to provide information either voluntarily or through a subpoena, and he eventually will need to provide it to the government regardless.
“If there’s something that Walt can do right now that would benefit him, then my belief is that he should probably consider it,” he said.
Nauta was seen on security camera footage at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Fla., moving boxes in and out of a storage room.
Prosecutors have accused Nauta of working with Trump to keep the boxes — which were filled with classified and sensitive documents that should have been turned over to government record-keepers — away from investigators and former Trump attorney Evan Corcoran.
Corcoran had come to Mar-a-Lago to retrieve the documents to comply with a subpoena from the Justice Department to turn over all remaining documents that were at the property.