CLAIM: A screenshot shows a Truth Social post from former President Donald Trump saying his personal aide and alleged co-conspirator Walt Nauta was the one who packed up his “personal papers” when he left the White House.

ASSESSMENT: False. The image is fabricated and Trump never posted such a statement on Truth Social.

THE FACTS: A day after Trump pleaded not guilty to dozens of felony counts accusing him of hoarding classified documents, many social media users shared the bogus Truth Social post as real, suggesting it showed the former president was pointing the finger at Nauta for any classified documents that made their way into his possession.

Nauta, Trump’s valet before joining him as personal aide in Mar-a-Lago, was indicted last week on charges that he moved boxes of documents at Trump’s direction and then misled the FBI about it. Nauta did not enter a plea Tuesday because he did not have a local lawyer with him.

The post circulating on social media shows Trump’s Truth Social profile. “Many people are saying the theft of Nuclear and Military Secrets is a very serious crime,” it begins.The post goes on to say that Trump asked his “LOYAL aide Walt Nauta” to pack personal documents before leaving the White House and is confident Nauta didn’t “place any Nuclear Secrets” inside because he knew that would get the former president in “trouble.”

“So let’s just see what Judge Cannon says. Good Luck, Walt! We are behind you all the way!” it ends.

“Trump just threw Nauta under the bus,” one widely shared tweet sharing the supposed screenshot reads in part.

While Trump did publish a flurry of posts on his social media platform about the case before and after his court appearance, the post shown in the image was not one of them.

Fabricated Trump Truth Social post about Walt Nauta circulates after court appearance
Trump’s campaign did not immediately return a request for comment, but the supposed post does not currently appear on Trump’s profile and archived versions of the profile also do not show the post.

The image circulating on social media also contains signs it is not real, including a watermark from imgflip.com, a meme generator website that allows users to mimic Trump’s Truth Social posts. The text in the screenshot also goes over the platform’s 500-character limit.

Trump did post about Nauta on Truth Social on June 9, but it was to protest his inclusion in the indictment.

“They are trying to destroy his life, like the lives of so many others, hoping that he will say bad things about ‘Trump.’ He is strong, brave, and a Great Patriot. The FBI and DOJ are CORRUPT!” Trump wrote.

(AP)