Mar-a-Lago Valet Conviction Dismissed

by Brent E. Zepke, Esq

Mar-a-Lago Valet Conviction Dismissed

On February 11, 2025, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the criminal case of the United States of America v. Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira (case number 24-12311).

You may be asking: who are these men, what were they charged with, and why?

Waltine (Walt) Nauta, a former White House employee who worked as a valet for former President Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago, for his helping to move boxes, was charged with conspiracy, withholding, and concealing a document or record and with 38 counts of making false statements and misrepresentations.

Carlos De Oliveira, a maintenance worker at Mar-a-Lago, for his helping to move boxes, was charged with obstruction of justice.

The “why” is the boxes they helped move belonged to former President Donald Trump, who was charged, by Special Counsel Jack Smith, with 31 counts under the Espionage Act and 6 other process crimes stemming from his conversations with his lawyer.

Unless Special Counsel Jack Smith thought Trump conspired with his valet and maintenance worker, the charges against them were to force them to choose between paying for an attorney or testifying against Trump.

The Charges

On May 1, 2022, after David S. Ferriego retired from heading up the National Archives and Records Administration, President Biden appointed Debra Steidel Wall as Acting Head until she was sued for alleged violations of the First and Fifth Amendments for her actions involving pro-life slogans. Her replacement, Collen S. Shogan, immediately filed charges against Trump.

On May 11, a DOJ Grand Jury in D.C. (of course) recommended issuing a subpoena for the remaining records as the undisputed records had already been turned over.

On June 3, 2022, the Trump team cooperated with the FBI agents’ visit to Mar-a-Lago, and on June 8 the FBI sent a letter requesting that another lock be placed on the room with the records. Of course, as with all former presidents, Trump’s home – Mar-a-Lago – was guarded by the Secret Service.

On August 5, by alleging Trump was a risk to flee the country, the DOJ convinced Magistrate Bruce Reinhart to issue a search warrant without providing any notice to Trump.

On August 8, rather than follow the normal procedure of serving the warrant on Trump’s lawyers, the FBI followed procedures developed for Trump supporters Paul Manafort and Oliver Stone, of sending an armed SWAT contingent to seize Mar-a-Lago and keep Trump’s lawyers from observing the search.

Special Counsel

On November 18, 2022, just three days after President Trump announced his candidacy for the presidency in 2024, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced he was appointing Jack Smith as Special Counsel to investigate Trump.

Smith was living in the Netherlands with his wife, Katy Chevigny, as she was working with Michelle Obama on the documentary “Becoming” about the First Lady’s life.

Garland sent his appointment documents naming “Jack Smith” as Special Counsel to Smith for his completing the appointment process of signing it and taking the oath of office with a witness.

Smith, after relocating to D.C., formed a team of prosecutors and began alleging crimes committed by Trump, including Trump’s alleged failure to follow the rules for record keeping, and conspiracy for the activities of Jan 6, 2021. Interestingly, the Democrats and mainstream media continue to assert that Trump was charged with “insurrection.” Neither the Special Counsel, nor any other prosecutor, has ever charged him with “insurrection.”

The Federal Judge, Tanya Chutkan, scheduled the Special Counsel’s Jan 6 case for March 4, 2024, the day before Super Tuesday when 15 states were to hold their Republican primaries or caucuses.

However, since every previous president had “Presidential Immunity,” Trump’s lawyers appealed to the D.C. Appellate Court to reverse Judge Chutkan’s denial of his immunity.

Smith, worried that Trump’s right to appeal any decision to the U.S. Supreme Court would delay the trial date until after the campaign season, tried to get the Supreme Court to issue an expedited ruling. In response, former Attorney General Ed Meese filed an Amicus Curie, or “friend of the court,” brief asserting the following three reasons why “Jack Smith” is not a valid Special Counsel and, therefore, all his actions should be null and void:

1) “The Special Counsel shall be selected from outside the United States Government” (29 CFR 600.3) where ‘CFR” stands for Code of Federal Regulations. Smith was working for the government as a prosecutor in The International Criminal Court (ICC).

2) Becoming a Special Counsel requires that certification must be signed by the person and the Oath of Office executed, with a witness, within 30 days of the signature. In November 2022, Smith signed it but it and the oath, were not witnessed. This omission was considered serious enough that the DOJ legal department notified Smith in the summer of 2023 that he needed to have his signature and oath witnessed, which he did 228 days after signing the document. The taking of the oath is so important that, for example, any actions a “president elect” may try to enact before becoming “president” are null and void. Smith’s indictments of Trump were before Smith completed the oath.

3) The name Attorney General Garland put on the certification was “Jack Smith,” which is not the name of the person trying to act as Special Counsel, which is “John Luman Smith.” Note: There were multiple "Jack Smiths" and later adding Luman later did not correct the error.

The Supreme Court denied Smith’s petition without ruling on Meese’s brief.

Courts Holding

District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, in July 2024, dismissed the cases against all three on the grounds that Meese had cited; i.e., Smith was unlawfully appointed. Smith appealed this decision to the Eleventh Circuit.

Smith appealed Judge Aileen Cannon's decision to the Eleventh Circuit.

In November, the case against Trump was dismissed based on the Supreme Court case Trump v United States that held that he had presidential immunity.

On February 11, 2025, the Eleventh Circuit, based on the Acting Attorney General James R. McHenry withdrawing the charges, dismissed the charges against Nauta and De Oliveira.

Justice?

Nauta and De Oliveira were exonerated, and Donald Trump was elected, but to quote Ben Franklin, “Justice will not be served until all those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.”