Trump Lawyers Visit Justice Dept. As the Classified Documents Inquiry Nears End

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Former President Donald J. Trump’s lawyers met Monday at the Justice Department with officials, including special counsel Jack Smith, two weeks after requesting a meeting to discuss their concerns about the investigations by Mr. Smith to Mr. Trump, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The meeting did not include Attorney General Merrick B. Garland or Lisa O. Monaco, the deputy attorney general, and it was unclear what specific topics were discussed. But the visit comes amid indications that prosecutors in the special counsel’s office are nearing the end of their questioning of former presidents over their handling of classified documents. It also came at a time when the advisers of Mr. Trumps may not have more time to stop the charges, the people said.

Attorneys James Trusty, John Rowley and Lindsey Halligan left the Justice Department about two hours later. They refused to talk to reporters.

Shortly after their visit, Mr. Trump posted a message on his social media platform, Truth Social, suggesting that his legal team had at least discussed with him the possibility that he could be indicted. .

How can the DOJ charge me, who did nothing wrong, Mr. Trump wrote in all caps.

Tim Parlatore, a lawyer who resigned last month from representing Mr. Trump, said the former president’s legal team has long been concerned about how prosecutors working for Mr. Smith the classified documents inquiry.

I have long been concerned about the manner in which DOJ personnel conducted this investigation, Mr. Parlatore said. Regardless of what the evidence shows, whether your prosecution team engaged in misconduct is a relevant factor to consider in making any charging decisions, especially in a case with significant political magnitude.

Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mr. Smith, declined to comment.

The meeting with the Justice Department came as prosecutors were still pursuing several forms of questioning in the documents case.

Prosecutors are expected to question a new witness before a federal grand jury sitting in Florida later this week, according to people familiar with the matter. At least one other witness appeared before the Florida grand jury, separate from the one that had been sitting for months in Washington. It is unclear why the second grand jury in Florida is taking testimony.

Prosecutors are also interested in an incident from October in which a worker drained a pool at Mar-a-Lago, causing water damage to a room containing computer servers that hold digital logs for security camera compounds, according to a person familiar with the matter. Prosecutors’ interest in the pool incident was reported earlier by CNN.

In recent weeks, the office of Mr. Smith drilled down on the question of whether Mr. Trump and some of his aides have sought to disrupt government efforts to obtain security camera footage from Mar-a-Lago that could shed light on how documents were stored at the property and whether who has access to them.

Prosecutors are also studying recorded audio notes made by a lawyer for Mr. Trump, M. Evan Corcoran. The records refer to a period last year when Mr. Mr. Corcoran Trump after a subpoena from the Justice Department demanding the return of all classified materials belonging to former presidents.

The records also include a search conducted by Mr. Corcoran in June in response to a subpoena for any relevant records kept at Mar-a-Lago. Mr. was forced. Corcoran to return the records after prosecutors convinced a federal judge they had enough evidence of a crime to pierce the attorney-client privilege, which would normally shield such material from scrutiny.

In a one-page letter from Mr. Trumps to Mr. Garland, posted by Mr. Trump on his Truth Social account on May 23, the lawyers did not mention any specific complaints by his legal team, but instead broadly asserted that Mr. Trump has been treated unfairly by the Justice Department through investigations led by Mr. Smith. Along with the classified documents case, prosecutors under Mr. Smith are also examining efforts by Mr. Trump and his aides to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The letter to Mr. Garland is an abridged version of a longer one that contains a more detailed account of the concerns of Mr. Trumps, according to two people familiar with the matter. Those include ways in which grand juries have been used in special counsel investigations and attempts to strong-arm defense attorneys involved in the cases, the people said.

Mr. Trusty, who worked at the Justice Department for more than two decades, knew Mr. Smith: The two worked with each other a decade ago, when Mr. Trusty is a high-ranking prosecutor in the departments criminal division and Mr. Smith is the head of the public integrity unit.

The visit by Trump’s legal teams to the Justice Department, first reported by CBS News, came as signs emerged that Mr. Smith to find the case in the case of documents. The status of his other line of questioning, on Mr. Trump’s efforts to reverse his election loss and how they contributed to the attack on the Capitol by his supporters in Jan. 6, 2021, remains less clear.

Mr. Trump expects to face charges in the investigation of the documents, according to people who have spoken to him, although that does not mean he is certain that charges are pending.

Prosecutors said in legal documents last year that they were investigating Mr. Trump over his handling of classified documents he took with him when he left office and whether he thwarted government efforts to retrieve them. He voluntarily turned over two sets of documents last year, and FBI agents obtained more in an August search of Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence in Florida.

In his Truth Social post, Mr. Trump compared his case to that of President Biden, who was found to have classified documents in his possession dating back to his time as vice president and is also being examined by a special counsel. Mr. Trump also mentioned the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.

The first letter from his lawyers to Mr. Garland was directly confrontational, accusing officials in the Justice Department of showing favoritism to Mr. Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, who are under criminal investigation by the department.

By sending the letter, Mr. Trump in an oft-used playbook, in which he suggests that a judge or a prosecutor would treat him unfairly by investigating him.

Under Justice Department regulations, Mr. Garland if Mr. decides. Smith to file charges against Mr. Trump.

An attorney general can overrule a special counsel in one particular circumstance: if Mr. Garland determines that the prosecutors’ action would be improper or unreasonable under established department practices that it is not should be continued. Mr. Garland must also disclose that to Congress and explain any such intervention once the special counsels’ inquiry is complete.

William K. Rashbaum contributed reporting.

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