Lawyers for former President Donald Trump said Congress should bar the US Justice Department from handling classified documents and transfer that responsibility to intelligence agencies.
(Bloomberg) — Lawyers for former President Donald Trump said Congress should bar the US Justice Department from handling classified documents and transfer that responsibility to intelligence agencies.
The lawyers, in a 10-page letter to Representative Mike Turner, chairman of the Intelligence Committee, accused the department of bungling the inquiry that led to FBI agents confiscating classified records from Trump’s Mar—a-Lago resort last summer.
“A legislative solution by Congress is required to prevent the DOJ from continuing to conduct ham-handed criminal investigations of matters that are inherently not criminal,” the lawyers said in the letter, which was released on Wednesday.
They said the department had applied a double standard, giving far greater consideration to President Joe Biden when classified materials were discovered at his Delaware home and at an office he had used than in Trump’s case.
The lawyers added that Trump was given little time or assistance to go through records at the White House after his defeat in the 2020 election, and aides and General Service Administration employees “quickly packed everything into boxes and shipped them to Florida.”
“We have seen absolutely no indication that President Trump knowingly possessed any of the marked documents or willfully broke any laws,” the lawyers, Timothy Parlatore, John Rowley, James Trusty and Lindsey Halligan, wrote to Turner, whose panel has been looking into the mishandling of classified records.
The FBI said it found 11 sets of documents bearing classified markings at Mar-a-Lago, a number of which were marked top secret. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.
A spokesman for Turner, an Ohio Republican, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday night. A spokeswoman for Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the panel, declined to comment. The office of Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating Trump’s handling of the classified documents and other matters, also did not respond.
Another Republican-led House Committee has already entered into a Trump legal battle.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio in March began an investigation of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg as he prepared a criminal case against the former president. Since Trump’s indictment on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, Jordan and other committee Republicans also have been among his most visible defenders. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
–With assistance from Zoe Tillman.
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