Trump Lawyers Reportedly In Talks With Justice Department About January Six Criminal Probe: Exclusive

Trump Lawyers Reportedly In Talks With Justice Department About January Six Criminal Probe: Exclusive

Updated on August 05, 2022 19:29 PM by Anna P

Donald Trump Legal Team In Direct Communication

Former President Donald Trump's team is in communication with authority Department officials, the sign of talks between the two sides as the corruption probe into January 6, 2021, advances, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.

The talks rotate around whether Trump would shield conversations he had while President from federal investigators.

In recent weeks, investigators have moved assertively into Trump's orbit, capias top former White House officials, aiming at efforts to overturn the 2020 election and assassinate searches of lawyers who sought to aid those efforts.

The US Attorney's Office

The sources said the Trump team's discussions are with the US attorney's office in Washington, which is in charge of the analysis, and its top January 6 prosecutor Thomas Windom. The conversations have not been reported.

At this stage, they are focused mostly on whether the people said any communications that witnesses from the Trump West Wing had with the former President could be kept from a federal criminal grand jury under Trump's claims of executive privilege.

The Justice Department

The Justice Department has been assuming a court fight with Trump over executive privilege. The problem has arisen as grand jury subpoenas have been issued to two former White House counsel's office officials and former Vice President Mike Pence's chief counsel and chief of staff.

According to CNN, Trump's legal defense team has warned him that indictments are possible.

Georgia Separate Investigation

Some members of Trump's legal team have discussed his potential defense strategies on at least two occasions in the current months, according to two sources familiar with the matter, as they brace for new developments in the authority Department probe and a separate investigation by Georgia officials into his probably criminal meddling in the state's 2020 election results. Rolling Stone reported that Trump had been briefed.

Sources said that Trump had grilled his attorneys on whether they believed he would face formal charges. Yet the former President has expressed a high dose of skepticism that he will be indicted, one of the experts familiar with the matter said.

Another source held to the former President told that Trump also had posed questions about a possible arraignment to members of his inner circle. Some of them believe the President is concerned about the possibility of federal charges.

Presidential Campaigns

But one person hold to Trump said he is noticeably more engaged when chatting with friends and advisers about the 2022 midterms and his possible presidential campaign in 2024 than during briefings on legal strategy.

This person explained the former President as dismissive in conversations about his legal troubles, often repeating his ‘witch hunt’ mantra as he claims political opponents drive the various probes he's facing.

Trump Spokesman Statement

A Trump spokesman said in a statement: There is a concerted effort to undermine the important, Constitutionally-rooted Executive and Attorney-Client Privileges through partisan, political persecution.

How can any future President ever have confidential conversations with his attorneys, counselors, and other expression advisors if any such advisor is forced, either during or after the Presidency, in front of an Unselect Committee or other entity, and be forced to reveal those privileged, confidential discussions? The spokesman said.

Witch hunts or kangaroo courts will not deter President Trump from continuing to defend and fight for America, our Constitution, and the Truth.

The Justice Department Declined

The former President has ignored advice from some of his advisers to avoid speaking with former and present aides who have become entangled in the House select committee's probe into January 6 and may become part of the criminal investigation familiar with the matter.

Trump has specifically been counseled to cut contact with his former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, whose actions leading up to and on the day of the US Capitol insurrection have been deeply scrutinized by the House panel, the people said.

Two of Meadows' former top aides, Cassidy Hutchinson and Alyssa Farah Griffin, conjointly have been highly critical of Trump, with Hutchinson testifying about damaging details about Trump's actions on January 6 during her public testimony before the House panel in June. Hutchinson is cooperating in the DOJ probe as well.

Some of Trump's attorneys believe Meadows could be in investigators' crosshairs and are concerned he could become a fact witness if he is pushed to cooperate in the Justice Department probe, according to two people familiar with the matter.

In response, Meadows' attorney George Terwilliger told CNN on Thursday: All of that is idle and uninformed speculation, apparently by people that know little but talk a lot.

Crucial Public Testimony

Former White House attorney Ty Cobb said Meadows is perfectly positioned to be the John Dean of this mess, referring to the former Richard Nixon aide who offered crucial public testimony during the Watergate hearings.

Meadows is valuable because he is in jeopardy: He was basically at Trump's right hand throughout all these exercises and participated in key meetings and phone calls, Cobb said.

Yet, according to a source familiar with the relationship, Trump and Meadows have spoken several times. Another source close to Trump described their relationship as not the same as it once was while they served in the White House but insisted they still maintained a relationship, even as Trump has complained about Meadows in his recent conversations with other allies.

Meadows has been known to attend fundraisers and events at the former President's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. He also helped organize a donor retreat last April for the Conservative Partnership Institute, a group he runs with former Republican Sen. Jim DeMint.

The securing of Trump's endorsement for US Senate candidate Ted Budd was the last time Meadows was around regularly. Since then, he's never been a big part of the political operation or thought process, said a second person close to Trump.

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