CNN
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The January 6 commission’s referral of criminals to the Justice Department that prompted the indictment of Donald Trump was “worthless,” one of the former president’s attorneys told CNN on Saturday.
“The referral itself is almost worthless,” Trump’s attorney Tim Perlatore told the CNN Newsroom. “The Department of Justice doesn’t have to follow suit. There’s an existing investigation that we’ve been working on for quite some time. Really what this does, if anything, it just politicizes the process.”
Parlatore was responding to an unprecedented criminal inquiry sent to the Justice Department earlier this week by a bipartisan task force investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Committee members believe Trump is guilty of at least four federal crimes, including conspiracy and obstruction of a joint session of Congress.
The Jan. 6 committee reached these conclusions after finding evidence from witnesses that showed Trump had been warned that some of his post-election plans to overturn the results were illegal. — But he tried them anyway. It included a relentless pressure campaign.
“It’s a political ruckus, but at this point, it has nothing to do with our defense,” said Perlatore, who represents Trump in the Justice Department investigation, in a statement about potential government documents on Jan. 6 and in Mara. about mishandling. Lago.
Mr Trump has denied wrongdoing on both issues. Special Counsel Jack Smith, a veteran prosecutor tasked with determining whether there is sufficient evidence that Trump broke the law and whether prosecution is appropriate, has launched two high-stakes investigations. is supervising the
The Mar-a-Lago investigation revolves around whether Trump or his aides mishandled classified records and national security documents by taking them from the White House to his resort and home in Florida. .
Federal authorities have recovered at least 325 classified documents from Mar-a-Lago, according to court filings. Trump voluntarily returned 184 of those files in January. He returned 38 more under a subpoena in June 2008. Justice Department investigators suspected there were more in Mar-a-Lago, so they obtained a search warrant and in August During his search, he also found 103 classified documents.
Since then, prosecutors have negotiated with Trump’s lawyers to prove nothing remains.
Parlatore told CNN on Saturday that “everything found has been handed over” and that he is confident there are no more records with classification markers at Mar-a-Lago yet.
“We had a professional search team investigate all places where documents could reasonably be stored,” says Parlatore. “We visited some places that we really thought weren’t possible. But the DOJ asked us to, so we did it anyway.”
He added, “I’m pretty sure this is a dead issue at this point.”