Trump attorneys seek meeting with Garland over questions from special counsel
Lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump sent a letter on Tuesday requesting a meeting with Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in connection with the Special Counsel’s investigations into Mr. Trump’s conduct.
The letter did not provide specifics, but alleged that Mr Trump was treated unfairly by the Justice Department during the investigations led by Special Counsel Jack Smith. Mr. Smith examines Mr. Trump’s handling of classified material discovered at his private Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, after his presidency, as well as his attempts to retain power after losing the 2020 election.
There are indications that Mr. Smith is approaching the stage of the investigation where he could make decisions about whether or not to indict Mr. Trump and others in the documents case. The status of his other line of inquiry, into Mr. Trump’s attempts to reverse his election loss and how they contributed to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by his supporters, is less clear.
“Unlike President Biden, his son Hunter and the Biden family, President Trump is being treated unfairly,” Mr. Trump’s attorneys, James Trusty and John Rowley, wrote to Mr. Garland.
“No president of the United States in the history of our country has ever been subject to such an outrageous and illegitimate investigation,” they wrote.
They requested a meeting to discuss the “ongoing injustice” by Mr Smith’s team.
The letter was previously reported by ABC News.
A spokesman for Mr Smith declined to comment.
The tone of the letter differs markedly from Mr. Trump’s approach shortly after the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago in August 2022, recovering documents Mr. Trump failed to turn over after receiving a subpoena stating demanded that they be returned to the government. At the time, Mr. Trump sent a message to Justice Department officials through an intermediary that the search was setting the country ablaze, and asked how he could help bring the temperature down.
The letter from his lawyers on Tuesday was nothing short of confrontational. It implied that Mr Biden’s family, who appointed Mr Garland and who are themselves the focus of a special council investigation into a much smaller number of classified documents from his vice presidential and senate days, found in spaces where he worked and in his home, benefits from more favorable treatment.
Hunter Biden is under separate investigation for possible tax charges and for possibly lying about his drug use on a federal form he filled out to buy a gun.
Mr. Trump is the front-runner for the Republican nomination in an increasingly crowded Republican field. But with the letter, Trump is relying on a common playbook, suggesting that a judge or prosecutor is treating him unfairly by investigating him.
He recently tried to suggest that the judge overseeing an indictment against him in a Manhattan state court is conflicted because a family member works for Democrats.
Seen another way, the letter could be an attempt by Mr Trump’s lawyers to ask Mr Garland to withdraw from involvement in whether Mr Trump is indicted.
While Mr. Smith will make the recommendation on whether or not to indict Mr. Trump for federal crimes in the two cases, a final decision will be made by Mr. Garland. In the documents-related case, prosecutors examined evidence related to obstruction of justice and whether he mishandled classified material.
Mr Smith’s team is still hearing witnesses in the two cases, according to many familiar with the activity, although all signs point to the documentary investigation coming to an end.
Some of Mr Trump’s advisers have privately predicted that the former president will face minimal charges in the case related to the documents, though they claim he has done nothing wrong. They have also become angry at the number of people who have been subpoenaed, from low-ranking workers at Mar-a-Lago to former government officials.
Mr Trump is indicted in New York on charges of paying a porn star hush money and faces a separate investigation in Georgia into his efforts to reverse his defeat at the 2020 polls there.
It is highly unlikely that Mr. Garland would agree to meet with Mr. Trump’s lawyers, one of the attorney general’s former aides said.
“Merrick Garland will not be meeting with Trusty or any of the other Trump attorneys,” said Anthony Coley, Mr. Garland. “Jack Smith is leading this investigation, not Merrick Garland.”
Glenn Thrush reporting contributed.