Former U.S. President Donald J. Trump visits the driving range, meets fans and watches Round 2 of LIV Golf Washington DC 2023 at Trump National Golf Club Washington DC in Sterling, Virginia, United States on May 27, 2023.Â
Kyle Mazza | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Lawyers for Donald Trump met Monday morning with Department of Justice officials, a day after the previous president noted speculation that special counsel Jack Smith is moving closer to in search of an indictment of him.
NBC News confirmed Trump lawyers on Monday met with officials on the DOJ headquarters in Washington, D.C., after CBS News tweeted a photograph of three attorneys walking in to the constructing. The lawyers, John Rowley, James Trusty and Lindsey Halligan, left the DOJ shortly before noon ET, but declined to comment, NBC reported.
Soon after the meeting ended, Trump posted an all-caps message to his Truth Social account, saying: “How can DOJ possibly charge me, who did nothing incorrect, when no other presidents were charged.”
The meeting didn’t include Attorney General Merrick Garland or Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, in accordance with NBC.
A DOJ spokesman declined to comment to NBC concerning the sitdown.
Attorneys for former U.S. President Donald Trump; James Trusty, Lindsey Halligan and John Rowley, depart the U.S. Justice Department after meeting with Justice Department officials over the Trump Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, after Trump’s lawyers last month sent the department a letter asking for a gathering with U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, in Washington, U.S. June 5, 2023.Â
Sarah Lynch | Reuters
Smith is investigating Trump in two separate cases.
One pertains to Trump’s retention of presidency documents, a lot of them classified, at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida when he left the White House, and possible obstruction of justice in thwarting the recovery of that material by the National Archives and Records Administration.
NBC reported on Saturday that the federal grand jury that has been hearing evidence in that case is anticipated to resume proceedings this week in Washington.
Trump in a social media post on Sunday wrote, “Reports are the Marxist Special Prosecutor, DOJ, & FBI, need to Indict me on the BOXES HOAX, despite all the wrongdoing that they’ve done for SEVEN YEARS, including SPYING ON MY CAMPAIGN.”
The opposite probe by Smith is targeted on efforts by Trump and allies, including his campaign lawyers, to overturn his loss within the 2020 election of President Joe Biden, and effectively block confirmation of Biden’s victory within the Electoral College by a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump, who’s in search of the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, can also be being criminally investigated by a state prosecutor in Atlanta for his effort to get Georgia officials to reverse Biden’s victory in that state in 2020. Georgia was considered one of several swing states that Biden won, sealing his victory within the Electoral College.
Trump was criminally charged in March by a grand jury in Recent York City in an indictment accusing him of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment his then-lawyer Michael Cohen paid a porn star shortly before the presidential election in 2016.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in that case, which is scheduled to go to trial next March, in the course of the presidential primary season.
He’s the one U.S. president, former or otherwise, ever to be criminally charged.
