Former President Trump lashed out on social media after Tuesday’s meeting between three of his attorneys and Department of Justice officials, including Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Trump posted several times on his media site Truth Social, claiming he was a political target. He also attempted to deflect from federal prosecutors’ investigation of his handling of classified documents by making false comparisons between his case to that of President Biden, who has been cooperating with DOJ officials after classified documents from his time as Senator and Vice President turned up at his personal properties.
“The Marxists and Fascists in the DOJ & FBI are going after me at a level and speed never seen before in our Country, and I did nothing wrong,” Trump said in one Truth Social Post. “Joe Biden kept (keeps) thousand of documents, in many locations, some illegally taken from skiffs while he was a Senator, a big portion of which were classified. He didn’t want to give them back, and still doesn’t. Nothing happens to him….I have a much different prosecutor, a Trump hater!”
By “skiffs,” Trump appears to mean SCIFs, which are Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities used by the government for accessing, safeguarding, and storing classified information and material.
On Monday Smith and other DOJ officials met for nearly two hours with Trump attorneys Lindsey Halligan, John Rowley and James Trusty amid reports federal prosecutors are wrapping up the investigation into the former President’s handling of classified documents.
The three attorneys declined to comment to reporters about their visit. However, journalist sources noted that they had gone to make their case that the feds should not charge Trump for his possession of the documents.
The lawyers’ visit to the DOJ occurred following reports that the grand jury in the classified documents investigation is expected to meet again this week.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing, asserting repeatedly that he would “have the right” to keep classified material at his Florida country club residence, Mar-a-Lago, post-Presidency.
However, reports have surfaced federal prosecutors have obtained an audio recording, from the summer of 2021, of Trump saying he held onto a classified document about a potential attack on Iran. In the recording, Trump reportedly suggests that he knew the document was secret and that he had not declassified it.
Further, Trump apparently suggests on the recording that he would like to share the information on the purported document but he’s aware of limitations on his ability post-presidency to declassify records.
The claim would undermine Trump’s assertions that he declassified all the documents in his possession while he was still President, as well as his claim of having the right to hold on to such a document.
In recent weeks it’s also been reported that Smith appears to be focusing on whether there’s enough evidence to ask the grand jury to charge Trump with obstruction of justice surrounding his handling of the classified documents, including whether the former President took or directed actions to impede government efforts to collect all sensitive records.
In another Truth Social posting on Tuesday, Trump—who’s running for reelection in 2024—wrote, “It’s all about ELECTION INTERFERENCE. They don’t want to run against me….They are using the DOJ & FBI against me to Rigg the 2024 Election.”
If the DOJ decides to indict Trump, it would be the first time in U.S. history that a former President was charged with a federal crime.
