Melania? A female member of Donald Trump’s family helped him hide classified documents | World news
A female member of former US President Donald Trump’s family was involved in decisions on how to handle classified US government documents taken from the White House, prosecutors said as the historic indictment was unsealed this week. Authorities allege that an unnamed family member tipped Donald Trump aide Walt Nauta as he was preparing to release documents he did not want to give back.
The indictment widens the scope of people who may have had unauthorized influence over sensitive information on US nuclear weapons, military plans and foreign relations. The identity of the family member is a mystery with the only sign being that Walt Nauta allegedly called him “ma’am”.
ABC News reported that the woman is likely to be Melania, citing sources. Donald Trump is facing 37 criminal charges including withholding national security information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, concealing a document in a federal investigation, and making false statements and representations.
Prosecutors said the former US president wanted to keep some of the documents in defiance of a legal order to hand them over, keeping them at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Although Donald Trump denied all the accusations and said that he was an “innocent man” who suffered because of “one word” committed by his political enemies.
According to the indictment, a member of Donald Trump’s family participated a day before a lawyer searched his storage room for classified documents. Donald Trump allegedly asked Walt Nauta to remove 64 boxes from their storage room when a family member allegedly texted the latter, “Good Friday, Walt. Happy Memorial Day! I saw you put the boxes in the closet.” POTUS. Just FYI, and I’ll say it. He too: not sure how many you want to carry on Friday in the plane. We will NOT have room for them. The plane will be full of cargo. Thank you!”
Yoo Nauta replied, “Good afternoon ma’am. Thank you very much. I thought you wanted to take from them. I didn’t think you wanted to take the boxes. You told me to put them in the room and you I will talk to you about them.”
The indictment did not say anything more about who this family member might be.
