Former President Donald Trump is accusing the Biden administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) of launching a politically motivated attack against him over his alleged mishandling of classified documents last year.
According to The Guardian, lawyer Stanley Woodward has come forward with allegations of pressure from prosecutors. Last November, Woodward received a phone call requesting a meeting to discuss Walt Nauta’s involvement in the case against Trump. Nauta is the former president’s valet.
Woodward and Nauta subsequently met with several prosecutors, including Jay Bratt, who leads the DOJ’s counterintelligence division. During the meeting, federal officials told the pair that they wanted the valet’s cooperation in their case, warning that Nauta could face charges should he fail to cooperate with authorities.
The attorney claims that the encounter took a strange turn when Bratt questioned his loyalty to Trump, implying that he expected Woodward to “do the right thing” since he did not think that he was a “Trump guy.” Bratt then allegedly mentioned that he had been made aware of the attorney’s recent application for a superior court judge position, which was still pending.
In the alleged court filing, Woodward asserts that the conversation continued without any explicit illegal suggestions from the counterintelligence chief. However, Woodward got the feeling that Bratt insinuated that his judicial application would receive more favorable consideration if his client participated in the case against the former president.
Although Woodward’s statement doesn’t seem to have altered any testimony given by Nauta, the degree of any potential harm to Trump’s case is unclear. Bratt would not also have the power to influence such an application, which is handled by the White House counsel’s office.
“Even if it’s true, it would not rise to the level of prosecutorial misconduct,” former U.S. attorney Joyce Vance said. “Prosecutors don’t have any influence over judicial applications and all the parties to the conversation would have known that.”
This comes after Trump was recently arraigned on several charges. He has since invoked the Presidential Records Act and drawn comparisons between his treatment and that of President Joe Biden, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and even former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger.
