Former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman has criticized former President Donald Trump for his apparent desire to preemptively pardon body man Walt Nauta for his assistance in concealing stolen classified documents in the Mar-a-Lago case. Akerman compared Trump’s promise to the one he made to Roger Stone and Paul Manafort, both of whom were convicted of crimes related to the Russia investigation. Akerman believes that Trump’s pardons are part of a pattern of obstruction of justice and that Nauta may have been motivated to conceal evidence because of Trump’s promise of a pardon.
Akerman’s comments come after federal Judge Aileen Cannon unsealed a trove of documents about the Mar-a-Lago case, revealing the extent to which Trump was warned to return the records he took from the White House. The documents also show that Trump repeatedly resisted efforts to retrieve the documents, even after the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) issued a subpoena for them.
Akerman said that Trump’s promise to pardon Nauta is a clear attempt to obstruct justice and that it shows that Trump is willing to use his power to protect his associates from prosecution. He also said that Nauta’s decision to conceal evidence may have been motivated by Trump’s promise of a pardon.
“This is typical Donald Trump,” said Akerman to MSNBC’s Joy Reid. “There is nothing new here. The fact that he was telling Walt Nauta that he would pardon him, even if he lied to the FBI, don’t worry about it, hang tight, I’m going to pardon you. We have seen that story before.”
Akerman compared Trump’s promise to the one he made Roger Stone, the adviser convicted in 2019 of attempting to protect the former president from investigators.
“We saw it with Roger Stone, who the judge in that case when he was convicted found that he was covering up for Donald Trump,” Akerman continued. “And lo and behold, what happens? He gets pardoned by Donald Trump. You have Paul Manafort, who was supposedly going to cooperate until Donald Trump started dangling a pardon in front of him. Paul Manafort could have broken open this entire Russian investigation . He knew where the bodies were buried, he knew about the Russian agent that he was dealing with and providing detailed information about various parts of the battleground states, in order to microtarget voters. He wound up clamming up, and lo and behold, he was pardoned. So when Walt Nauta listens to Donald Trump, he sees a history of an individual that’s covered a few people’s backs. And this is all part of Donald Trump’s pattern that he’s been conducting since he got into office.”
Reid agreed with Akerman’s assessment, saying that Trump’s behavior is “very Mafioso.”
“Very Mafioso,” Akerman agreed. “It definitely is. It’s like you have to pledge allegiance to the capo … like the feudal system of providing benefits to the feudal people out there, the serfs, so they do the work for you. They’ll take care of destroying tapes so that the government doesn’t get evidence of people moving boxes in and out. I mean, it’s like he is the guy in charge, and what he says goes. And you have two people that are now defendants in this case in Florida, that it really explains why they haven’t cooperated.”
Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the Mar-a-Lago case and has said that he declassified the documents before taking them from the White House. However, there is no evidence to support Trump’s claim, and the Justice Department is continuing to investigate the matter.
