Former US President, Donald Trump stubbornly rejected his legal team’s efforts last year to settle the classified documents case and prevent him from being indicted by a federal grand jury, a new report claims.
Christopher Kise, one of Trump’s attorneys in 2022, wanted to quietly approach the Justice Department to negotiate a deal with Attorney General Merrick Garland, the Washington Post reported
Kise told other lawyers he hoped his move would “take the temperature down” by promising a professional approach and the return of all the materials from the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
But Trump rejected Kise’s attempts and listened instead to the advice of Tom Fitton, head of the conservative group Judicial Watch, who told him he should fight to keep the confidential documents, according to the report.
The report adds that Kise never approached prosecutors to pursue his plan after Trump told him not to.
A special prosecutor, Jack Smith, was appointed a few months later leading to Trump’s federal indictment on Tuesday, June 13 on 37 felony counts over his alleged mishandling and concealment of national security information.
He pleaded not guilty and vowed to fight the charges.
“President Trump has consistently been in full compliance with the Presidential Records Act, which is the only law that applies to Presidents and their records,” Trump’s presidential campaign Steven Cheung said in a statement that was added to the report.
“In the course of negotiations over the return of the documents, President Trump told the lead DOJ official, ‘anything you need from us, just let us know.’ Sadly, the weaponized DOJ rejected this offer of cooperation and conducted an unnecessary and unconstitutional raid on the President’s home in order to inflict maximum political damage on the leading presidential candidate,” he added.
The report adds that Trump repeatedly rejected opportunities to avoid criminal charges and even misled his own advisers — telling them the boxes at his hideaway only contained newspaper clippings and clothes.
Some of his senior advisers even flew to Mar-a-Lago to beg him to return the materials, but he stood firm, the Washington Post adds.