Current:Home > MyTrump attorneys meet with special counsel at Justice Dept amid documents investigation -Clarity Finance Guides
Trump attorneys meet with special counsel at Justice Dept amid documents investigation
View
Date:2025-04-13 19:19:53
Attorneys representing former President Donald Trump — John Rowley, James Trusty and Lindsey Halligan — met with special counsel Jack Smith and federal prosecutors at the Justice Department at around 10 a.m. Monday, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The meeting took place weeks after Trump's lawyers had requested a meeting with top federal law enforcement officials. The attorneys for the former president spent just under two hours inside the Main Justice building and declined to comment on their meeting as they left.
CBS News cameras captured Trump's legal team walking into the Justice Department. The former president's lawyers did not speak as they entered the building in Washington. A person familiar with the meeting between the three attorneys and the department said that Attorney General Merrick Garland did not attend.
Two people familiar with the probe said that Trump's legal team is frustrated with how Justice Department officials have handled attorney-client matters in recent months and would likely raise their concerns on this front during Monday's meeting, in particular, prosecutors' discussions of related issues in front of the grand jury.
Earlier this year, a federal judge said Trump's attorney must testify before a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., investigating the former president's retention of documents with classified markings.
The attorney, Evan Corcoran, previously refused to answer questions from investigators about his conversations with Trump, citing attorney-client privilege concerns. Prosecutors in the special counsel's office wanted to ask Corcoran about an alleged call he had with Trump on June 24, 2022, around the time investigators were seeking to secure documents at Trump's home and video surveillance tapes of Mar-a-Lago, a source previously told CBS news last week.
The special counsel's team asked D.C. District Chief Judge Beryl Howell to reject Corcoran's claims of privilege and force him to testify against his client, Trump, on the basis that the attorney-client communications in question could have furthered criminal activity. Howell's secret order only partially granted that request and ruled that the so-called "crime-fraud exception" be applied to Corcoran's testimony on a specific set of questions, the sources said.
An appeals court rejected the former president's request to put a stop to Corcoran's testimony, upholding Howell's ruling. Howell was replaced as chief judge on the D.C. federal court by Judge James Boasberg, who ruled earlier this year that former Vice President Mike Pence had to testify before a grand jury in the special counsel's second investigation into Trump centered around efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and the Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol.
Special counsel Jack Smith has been investigating the former president after documents with classified markings from his White House tenure were uncovered at Trump's Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago, in August 2022. Prosecutors are also looking into whether there were efforts to obstruct attempts to recover the records, according to multiple sources close to the investigation.
Several sources with knowledge of the investigation believe that a charging decision in the documents case is imminent, and Trump lawyers in recent days were expected to meet at some point with the Justice Department to talk through where things stand and to potentially lay out their concerns about the prosecutors' efforts so far.
Grand jury testimony has slowed in recent weeks, sources said, indicating the investigation may be coming to a close. Numerous former White House aides and Mar-a-Lago employees — from security officials and valets — have been called to testify in secret proceedings in Washington, D.C.
The special counsel has gathered evidence that Trump's staff moved boxes the day before a June 2022 visit to Mar-a-Lago by the FBI and a federal prosecutor, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS News. This was first reported by The Washington Post.
Trump lawyers Rowley and Trusty had written a letter in May complaining that their client was being treated "unfairly" and asked to "discuss the ongoing injustice that is being perpetrated by your Special Counsel and his prosecutors."
Smith's office declined to comment.
- In:
- Donald Trump
Robert Costa is CBS News' chief election and campaign correspondent based in Washington, D.C.
TwitterveryGood! (7)
Related
- Average rate on 30
- Target will be closed on Thanksgiving: Here’s when stores open on Black Friday
- Diamond Sports Group will offer single-game pricing to stream NBA and NHL games starting next month
- Trump ally Steve Bannon blasts ‘lawfare’ as he faces New York trial after federal prison stint
- Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow owns a $3 million Batmobile Tumbler
- American Idol’s Triston Harper, 16, Expecting a Baby With Wife Paris Reed
- Guns smuggled from the US are blamed for a surge in killings on more Caribbean islands
- MLS Star Marco Angulo Dead at 22 One Month After Car Crash
- At site of suspected mass killings, Syrians recall horrors, hope for answers
- How to Build Your Target Fall Capsule Wardrobe: Budget-Friendly Must-Haves for Effortless Style
Ranking
- North Carolina trustees approve Bill Belichick’s deal ahead of introductory news conference
- Father, 5 children hurt in propane tank explosion while getting toys: 'Devastating accident'
- Texas mother sentenced to 50 years for leaving kids in dire conditions as son’s body decomposed
- Judge recuses himself in Arizona fake elector case after urging response to attacks on Kamala Harris
- Krispy Kreme offers a free dozen Grinch green doughnuts: When to get the deal
- Garth Brooks wants to move his sexual assault case to federal court. How that could help the singer.
- Controversial comedian Shane Gillis announces his 'biggest tour yet'
- Republican Dan Newhouse wins reelection to US House in Washington
Recommendation
'We're reborn!' Gazans express joy at returning home to north
Denver district attorney is investigating the leak of voting passwords in Colorado
Dallas Long, who won 2 Olympic medals while dominating the shot put in the 1960s, has died at 84
RHOBH's Kyle Richards Addresses PK Kemsley Cheating Rumors in the Best Way Possible
This was the average Social Security benefit in 2004, and here's what it is now
Kentucky gets early signature win at Champions Classic against Duke | Opinion
Olivia Munn Randomly Drug Tests John Mulaney After Mini-Intervention
Jeep slashes 2025 Grand Cherokee prices