Facing the very real prospect of a criminal indictment, Donald Trump’s lawyers sent a strange letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland two weeks ago, requesting a meeting “to discuss the ongoing injustice that is being perpetrated by [special counsel Jack Smith] and his prosecutors.” The oddly unprofessional correspondence did not persuade the nation’s chief law enforcement official to sit down with the former president’s defense counsel.
That said, as NBC News reported, Trump’s lawyers were welcomed to Main Justice yesterday.
NBC News has confirmed that part of Trump’s legal team met with special counsel Jack Smith and others at Justice Department headquarters in Washington on Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter. Three of Trump’s lawyers — James Trusty, John Rowley and Lindsey Halligan — were at the Justice Department and met with the group of Justice Department officials, which included at least one other career prosecutor.
Garland and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco were not in attendance, the defense attorney’s request notwithstanding.
While it’s difficult to say with confidence what was said behind closed doors, there’s little to suggest the conversation went well: Shortly after his lawyers left the Justice Department, Trump turned to his social media platform to publish the latest in a series of online tantrums.
“HOW CAN DOJ POSSIBLY CHARGE ME, WHO DID NOTHING WRONG, WHEN NO OTHER PRESIDENT’S [sic] WERE CHARGED,” the Republican wrote in an all-caps harangue, which was filled with nonsense, including bogus claims about — wait for it — Hillary Clinton’s emails.
The fact that the former president threw a fit is not altogether new or interesting, but it’s the context that matters: Had the Justice Department meeting gone well, it’s unlikely such an outburst would’ve soon followed.
This was not, however, the only element of note in the larger controversy. As the investigation into the documents…
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