Get Ready to Get Indicted by the Feds – Rolling Stone

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Some of Donald Trump’s lawyers and top advisers have given the former president an unwelcome, if not unexpected, message in recent weeks: You should expect to be indicted this year.

again.

This month, several legal and political advisers to Trump have publicly informed him that they expect the Justice Department to indict him in a criminal investigation into his hoarding of highly classified documents following the end of his presidency, said two sources familiar with the matter told Rolling Stone. . The feds are also investigating whether or not Trump tried to obstruct the investigation before last year’s FBI raid on the former president’s Florida estate.

Of course, this follows Trump’s indictment by local Manhattan prosecutors in April for falsifying business records. Later this summer, officials in Fulton County, Georgia, are expected to decide whether or not to indict Trump on election fraud charges.

Trump’s lawyers and confidants have told Trump that while they view the federal investigation as “bullshit,” they would be surprised at this point if he is not indicted — especially for the alleged obstruction of justice — and urged Trump to prepare for another historic fight. “It looks like they’re going to do it,” one of the sources said. “People close to [former] the president talked to him about what we think is going to happen soon, and how he and everyone else needs to be ready for it … it’s crazy not to.”

In at least one of these recent conversations, the former president angrily complained in response to these predictions that if the Department of Justice charges him for keeping classified documents, then “how Joe Biden?” according to another person familiar with the matter. (A small number of classified documents were discovered in several locations connected to Biden, including his garage; the Department of Justice named a second special counsel to look into the matter.) Editors’ picks

It’s still unclear whether the Justice Department will bring charges against Trump, though there are signs that this particular investigation is nearing its final stages. Some in the broader conservative movement have also braced for the possibility that Trump – currently the front-runner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination – will face indictment in various investigations. These potential indictments stem from Georgia’s election interference investigation into the Mar-a-Lago documents.

“I’m just going to hold the indictments in all jurisdictions,” Tom Fitton, president of the conservative group Judicial Watch and a close Trump ally, said in a brief interview Wednesday. “Democrats are so nervous about Trump running, they’ll do anything.”

Trump’s own former attorney general, Bill Barr, also said in a recent interview that the documents case should be Trump’s “worst.”

“He probably won’t have a problem just taking them. … The problem is what he did after the government asked them to come back and subpoena them,” Barr told CBS News. “And if there are any games being played there, he’s going to be very exposed.”

The Washington Post reported Thursday that two Trump employees moved boxes of papers in June, a day before DOJ attorney Jay Bratt visited Mar-a-Lago with federal agents to collect the classified material after a subpoena was issued a month ago. Investigators are reportedly viewing the behavior as suspicious and a possible sign of obstruction.

In the past week, the special counsel’s office and Trump’s legal team have taken public steps suggesting that the investigation into the documents is nearing a conclusion. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that the special counsel’s investigation appeared to be winding down after an exhaustive series of interviews and grand jury appearances by Trump aides and employees. Related

In another sign that a charging decision may be imminent, Trump himself posted a letter from his lawyers to Attorney General Merrick Garland requesting a meeting “at your earliest convenience” to discuss the special attorney investigation. Tim Parlatore, a lawyer who represented Trump in the investigation of the documents before leaving last week, told the Journal that the letter represented an attempt to avoid charges but personally doubted that the investigation would result in cases.

Prosecutors are reportedly looking into whether Trump attempted to obstruct justice by withholding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence sought by the National Archives after his presidency. Since his appointment in November 2022, special counsel Jack Smith has scored an impressive and rapid series of courtroom victories. Smith’s office urged a judge to compel Trump attorney Evan Corcoran to appear before a jury and testify as a witness against his client under the crime-fraud exception, which waives the attorney-client privilege if in case of using legal advice “for the commission of a fraud or crime.” Trending

The investigation first began after the National Archives sought to recover a set of missing boxes from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and discovered that the former president had hidden classified documents at the Florida club. The revelation prompted a Justice Department subpoena to Trump for all remaining classified documents and a certification from attorney Christina Bobb that the former president’s team conducted a “diligent search” of the property. . But investigators remained suspicious, and in August 2022, executed a search warrant, which yielded more classified documents.

Trump has since claimed he issued a blanket declassification order during his presidency and, as Rolling Stone reported, the FBI began grilling the former president’s National Security Council staff about whether they had heard the alleged order. But as Barr, Trump’s former attorney general, said, “I don’t think that argument is gonna fly.”

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