Earlier today, attorneys for failed one-term, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump met with officials at the U.S. Department of Justice for approximately two hours.
According to CNN:
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump met with Justice Department officials on Monday following a public request for a meeting about what they characterize as prosecutorial misconduct, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The meeting comes as the special counsel’s investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents and possible obstruction appears to be nearing its final stages.
The meeting lasted an estimated 90 minutes. Trump’s attorneys did not comment to reporters after leaving.
While Trump’s team had publicly asked to meet with Attorney General Merrick Garland, he was not believed to be in the meeting.
Additionally, thanks to the New York Times, we now know what one of Trump’s former attorneys, Evan Corcoran, handed over recordings to the Justice Department that could be incredibly damaging to the disgraced ex-president.
“The level of detail in the recording is said to have angered and unnerved close aides to Mr. Trump, who are worried it contains direct quotes from sensitive conversations,” the Times reported.
Those developments led former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance to tell MSNBC host Ayman Mohyeldin that it’s clear prosecutors have the evidence to indict Trump.
“The evidence, if the public record is correct, is a solid evidence, prosecutors should be able to obtain and sustain a conviction. That answers the question, can you indict?” Vance explained. “Then you have to answer the more nuanced question of should you? A big part of that is whether or not an indictment would be consistent with how similar situations have been handled in the past. In this instance, indicting Trump based on his conduct would be very consistent with how other cases involving retention but not dissemination of classified or other sensitive material has been handled.”
Vance went on to note that prosecutors have the ultimate weapon when it comes to gathering evidence: A subpoena. And we could soon learn all sorts of “surprises” about what the DOJ found during their investigation.
“Typically, the government knows a lot more than the public does when a case is indicted. This is a little bit different because the reporting has been so outstanding. Many reporters are very well-sourced,” Vance. “But it would be surprising if there weren’t a few surprises it would that could be good or bad for prosecutors. It’s possible that there could be some form of exculpatory evidence that suggests Trump is not guilty, maybe of any charges, or at least some of them. But It’s also possible that the government’s evidence gets much stronger when they access information through the grand jury. They may even be able to prove, for instance, that Trump disseminated these materials instead of just retaining them. And we will have to wait until we see the indictment to know how that shakes out.”
Special Counsel Jack Smith may hand down indictments against Trump as soon as this week, according to reports.
