Jack Smith Seeks To Hold Trump Team In Contempt Over Docs Case

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Donald Trump’s legal team said just before Thanksgiving that when it looked at four places where the ex-president kept classified documents, the attorneys discovered two more documents. In response, the Department of Justice requested a judge hold 45 and his attorney’s in contempt. That has never happened before.

The attorneys said that they just found the documents in a storage facility Trump used and then gave them to the FBI. At that point, they concluded that the ex-president was finally in compliance. This was after the DOJ had issued a subpoena six months earlier.

However the DOJ told the Washington DC District Chief Judge Berry Howell those searches were not sufficient. Howell leads the federal grand jury, and contempt proceedings under her are “under seal” according to The Washington Post.

Trump has been looking at potential “criminal liability” in the investigation led by the new Special Counsel Jack Smith. It has been labeled the “Mar-a-Lago document investigation.” However, the document search expanded well beyond the previous president’s Southern White House. Are documents at any of Trump’s other locations such as his New York City apartment and office or his New Jersey golf club, among others?

The DOJ has been trying to obtain the documents holding national security secrets. But Trump has fought with the federal agents and The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), where presidential materials are kept after a president leaves office.

Last January, Trump’s people handed over boxes “and an envelope” of federal documents. Some of them were classified. But the DOJ has not limited its search to classified documents.

Then in June, the DOJ issued a subpoena requesting the documents from Mar-a-Lago. All gifts and documents from a president’s time in office belong to the people of the United States, not the president. The agents brought in 33 boxes of records from Mar-a-Lago that included over 100 “classified” documents.

However, the DOJ claimed a number of “sensitive government documents” are still missing. At this time:

‘The Justice Department has not disclosed to Trump’s legal team which materials it believes have not been returned, according to one source.’

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The DOJ has asked that a judge hold Trump and his legal team in contempt:

‘Breaking news: Justice Department asks judge to hold Trump team in contempt over Mar-a-Lago documents case. The request came after months of mounting frustration from the Justice Department with the former president’s lawyers.’

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Friday a hearing will be held and Howell will determine whether she will hold the former president in contempt. That would mean fines, which are not new to Trump, according toCNN.

Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.


Christie writes Gloria Christie Reports & Three White Lions Substack newsletters and a Three White Lions podcast available on Apple, Spotify, etc. She is a political journalist for the liberal online newspaper The Bipartisan Report. Written in her own unique style with a twist of humor. Christie’s Mueller Report Adventures In Bite-Sizes a real-life compelling spy mystery (in progress). Find her here on Facebook. Or at Three White Lions her book on Amazon Kindle Vella and the Gloria Christie Three White Lions podcast on Apple, Spotify, etc.