- Title: Obstruction of justice at heart of DOJ Trump investigation - analyst
- Date: 31st August 2022
- Summary: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (FILE - JANUARY 20, 2017) (Agency Pool) PRESIDENT TRUMP RECEIVING OATH OF OFFICE FROM CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT, JOHN ROBERTS, AND THEN HUGGING HIS FAMILY
- Embargoed: 14th September 2022 23:04
- Keywords: DOJ Department of Justice Mar-a-Lago Obstruction Trump classified documents
- Location: VARIOUS, UNITED STATES / WATFORD, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM / BIARRITZ, FRANCE
- City: VARIOUS, UNITED STATES / WATFORD, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM / BIARRITZ, FRANCE
- Country: USA
- Topics: Government/Politics,United States
- Reuters ID: LVA009191331082022RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A Department of Justice court filing on Tuesday (August 30) makes it clear that alleged obstruction of justice by Donald Trump and his aides is at the heart of the DoJ’s investigation against the former president, an analyst told Reuters.
In the 54-page filing, the DoJ said it had evidence that classified documents were deliberately concealed from the FBI when it tried to retrieve them in June from Trump's Florida estate, prompting its unprecedented search of his home.
“I think obstruction really is the main issue here, and but for that obstructive conduct, I don't think there would have been the search warrant and there would not be the criminal investigation that DOJ says is ongoing,†Danya Perry, a former assistant United States Attorney said.
In the filing in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Florida, prosecutors laid out their evidence of obstruction of justice. They alleged publicly for the first time that Trump aides both falsely certified in June that the former president had returned all the government records he had stored in his home after leaving the White House in January 2021.
The filing also revealed that Trump lawyers "explicitly prohibited government personnel from opening or looking inside any of the boxes" inside a storage room when FBI agents first traveled to his Palm Beach Mar-a-Lago resort in June to retrieve the records.
The Justice Department released a photograph of some of the records found inside Trump's home bearing classification markings, some of which refer to clandestine human sources.
Danya Perry, who was the deputy chief of the criminal division for the Southern District of New York , said the fact that many of the documents were labelled as classified or related to national security is not really relevant to the Justice Department's allegation of obstruction.
“These documents are marked classified, and they were not returned after Trump's lawyer on Trump's behalf certified that there were no such documents,†Perry said.
“That in of itself is the definition of obstructive conduct, to essentially lie and conceal in response to a grand jury subpoena that meets all the elements for obstruction of justice, as long as that was knowing.â€
The Justice Department's filings come ahead of a Thursday (September 1) court hearing before U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in West Palm Beach. She is weighing Trump's request to appoint a special master who would conduct a privilege review of the documents.
A special master is an independent third party sometimes appointed by a court in sensitive cases to review materials potentially covered by attorney-client privilege to ensure investigators do not improperly view them.
Perry said that while it’s not clear why Trump has requested the appointment of a special master, it could delay a potential prosecution by the DoJ, which would benefit Trump if he chooses to run for president again.
“It would significantly delay these proceedings if they can appoint a special master and then perhaps DOJ will not prosecute him or indict him while he's a candidate [for president], and certainly not if he is president again,†said Perry, who is now a partner at Perry Guha LLP.
“So I think that's probably their gambit. But it's a loser. I mean, on the facts and absolutely on the law, they do not have a leg to stand on,†she added.
The Justice Department on Tuesday said it opposed the appointment of a special master.
Trump, prosecutors argued, lacks standing in the case because the records "do not belong to him."
The Aug. 8 search of Trump's home was a significant escalation of one of several federal and state investigations Trump is facing.
In a redacted affidavit underpinning the search released publicly by the department last week, an unidentified FBI agent said the agency reviewed and identified 184 documents "bearing classification markings" after Trump in January returned 15 boxes of government records sought by the U.S. National Archives.
After the National Archives discovered the classified material, some of which pertained to intelligence-gathering and clandestine human sources, it referred the matter to the FBI.
The Justice Department said on Tuesday it tried multiple times to get all the records back.
But ultimately, it developed evidence to suggest more materials remained at Mar-a-Lago and had been hidden from investigators.
Trump's defenses for why he retained the materials have shifted, and he has not offered a reason for why he did not give all the records back.
(Production: Ashraf Fahim) - Copyright Holder: POOL (CAN SELL)
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2022. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None