Oval Office operations are being run by an alleged Trump classified documents co-conspirator
- Mon, Sep 21 2026 at 3:39 PM
Mark
Remember those boxes of classified documents investigators found in Mar-a-Lago's bathroom and ballroom after Trump's first term?
Walt Nauta was one of the primary people involved in handling those documents. Now he's one of two Trump loyalists running Oval Office operations.
And it gets worse.
Nauta’s deputy, Chamberlain Harris, was also reportedly involved in the handling of sensitive records during the FBI’s investigation. According to a Justice Department memo, Harris scanned sensitive documents onto a laptop and uploaded them to the cloud.
Nauta and Harris were paid by Trump’s political operation between his presidential terms. Now they hold senior roles in the Oval Office—and both have also been given appointments to government boards.
Their roles and proximity to President Trump raise questions about how they are handling sensitive records and illustrate how Trump has rewarded and empowered loyalists during his second term.
Shortly after CREW reported all these connections, news broke that Trump also gave both Nauta and Harris $20,000 and $45,000 in cash gifts last year, an apparent violation of the law which prevents government employees from getting outside income.
That only makes all of this more concerning.Walt Nauta started working at the White House in the Navy mess during Trump’s first term. He then became one of Trump’s valets, and worked at Mar-a-Lago after Trump left office.
In 2023, Nauta was indicted as one of Trump’s two co-conspirators in the classified documents case.
The indictment charged Trump with illegally storing classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, “including in a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, an office space, his bedroom, and a storage room.”
The indictment says Nauta helped Trump pack and move boxes of documents, including during the FBI’s investigation. It charged him with conspiracy to obstruct justice, corruptly concealing documents and making false statements.
While Nauta worked at Mar-a-Lago and faced legal jeopardy alongside Trump, he was also employed by the Trump campaign and Save America PAC—which was paying his legal fees.
According to FBI notes, Nauta was promised a pardon if Trump was reelected to a second term. And he got more than that, Mark.
When Trump returned to office, he quickly hired Nauta as Director of Oval Office Operations. Then, just days after Trump returned to office, the DOJ asked the court to dismiss the charges against Nauta, and it did so the next month.
Less than two months later, Trump named Nauta to the Naval Academy Board of Visitors. Nauta was also reportedly part of the select group of aides who traveled with Trump during his catering cart gambit, misleading the press about Trump’s travel plans back from Turkey earlier this summer.
Nauta’s deputy in Oval Office operations, Chamberlain Harris, also reportedly played a role in the FBI’s failure to find certain records during a search for classified documents. According to a DOJ memo obtained by the House Judiciary Committee, she scanned sensitive documents to a laptop and uploaded them to the cloud.
In January, Trump named Harris to the Commission of Fine Arts, which signed off on Trump’s White House ballroom. Like Nauta, she was also paid by Save America PAC before Trump took office the second time.
It is no secret that the second Trump administration is staffed with loyalists. But to have two staffers overseeing Oval Office operations who have already faced scrutiny for their handling of classified records raises unique transparency and national security concerns.
While it is unclear how much power Nauta and Harris have in the Trump administration, it is clear that they have access to Trump and are likely to have proximity to the kinds of sensitive records that demand preservation and careful handling.
At the highest levels of the Trump administration, officials have reportedly used disappearing Signal messages and other methods that can make government records harder to preserve. CREW has documented senior officials using self-deleting Signal chats, and a federal judge has now ordered the administration to preserve messages subject to the Presidential Records Act.
And this isn’t happening by accident.
The administration has taken steps to make government less transparent, including removing public information and databases and advancing a legal position that the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional.
We sued to defend the law, and a federal judge sided with us and ordered the White House to comply with the law and preserve covered communications.
But the message from the top is hard to miss: transparency and accountability are being treated as obstacles rather than obligations.
Trump is reportedly promising to pardon everyone within 200 feet of the Oval Office, further disincentivizing efforts to follow the law. Mass pardons would almost surely cover these two loyalists, who he has already protected and rewarded over the years.
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