Donald Trump has reportedly yet to return all the documents he took from the White House, a top official of the U.S. Department of Justice told lawyers of the former president recently.
What Happened: The official, Jay Bratt, who heads the DoJ’s counterintelligence operations, expressed the department’s skepticism about Trump’s cooperation in the recovery of the documents in recent weeks, reported The New York Times, citing people familiar with the matter.
The outreach caused a wedge between Trump’s lawyers on how to respond with one side, which includes Chris Kise, advocating a cooperative approach that involves bringing an outside firm to further search for documents, and another side pitching for a more confrontational approach. The confrontational side prevailed, according to the report.
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Why It Matters: There is no clarity regarding which property Kise wanted to be searched by an outside firm. Trump spends his time in Mar-a-Lago, his club in Bedminster and an office in Manhattan, reported the Times.
The different approaches led to Kise’s role in Trump's legal team to be reportedly minimized. The attorney was hired by Trump for a $3 million fee paid by his political action committee.
The DoJ has several choices ahead: it could give up on trying to obtain the remaining documents, issue a subpoena or obtain yet another search warrant. The department could also try to get Trump to attest under oath that he has handed over materials in possession, according to the Times.
Last week, the National Archives and Records Administration told the House Oversight Committee that certain records from the presidency of Trump remain missing.
“While there is no easy way to establish absolute accountability, we do know that we do not have custody of everything we should,” said acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall.
Trump recently compared, on Truth Social, how he was treated by NARA compared with another Republican president George H.W. Bush who he claimed was given “exclusive legal control over all Presidential information.”
Truth Social is a unit of Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), a company set to merge with Digital World Acquisition Corp. DWAC.
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