Report: Trump Prosecutor Jay Bratt’s Alleged Misconduct Causing a ‘Problem’ for DOJ
An attorney who represents former President Donald Trump’s valet, who is under scrutiny as part of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation, alleged in a letter that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutor handling the case engaged in misconduct that is reportedly “being viewed as a problem,” within the DOJ, according to The Guardian.
Smith’s investigation is looking into Trump’s handling of White House documents, some of which were found during the raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Walt Nauta, a Mar-a-Lago valet, is under scrutiny as part of the probe as prosecutors reportedly suspect he helped Trump conceal classified documents that had been subpoenaed.
Last November, DOJ counterintelligence chief Jay Bratt summoned Nauta’s attorney, Stanley Woodward, for a meeting at DOJ headquarters regarding “an urgent matter that they were reluctant to discuss over the phone,” The Guardian reported, relying on a letter filed under seal with the chief U.S. Judge in Washington, DC, James Boasberg.
During that meeting, Bratt allegedly brought up Woodward’s application to be a superior court judge in Washington, DC, when trying to gain Nauta’s cooperation in the investigation.
The meeting between Bratt and Woodward occurred after Nauta had already spoken with prosecutors as part of their investigation into the former president.
As The Guardian reported:
Nauta should cooperate with the government because he had given potentially conflicting testimony that could result in a false statements charge, the prosecutors said according to the letter. Woodward is said to have demurred, disputing that Nauta had made false statements.
Bratt then turned to Woodward and remarked that he had not taken Woodward to be “a Trump guy” before noting that he knew Woodward had submitted an application to be a judge at the superior court in Washington DC that was currently pending, the letter said.
The allegation, in essence, is that Bratt suggested Woodward’s judicial application might be considered more favorably if he and his client cooperated against Trump. The letter was filed after Trump’s lawyers submitted a motion on Monday seeking grand jury transcripts, because of what they viewed as potential misconduct.
The Guardian’s report recognized that Bratt’s mention of Woodward’s judicial application could have been his attempt at making “small talk.”
However, Guardian reporter Hugo Lowell spoke with multiple people inside the DOJ who told him, “This incident with Jay Bratt is widely known inside the National Security Division and is being viewed as a problem.”
“Unclear whether it affects the Mar-a-Lago investigation but the chief judge in Washington has ordered briefings,” Lowell added.
Reports of Bratt’s alleged misconduct came the same week that Timothy Parlatore, a former Trump defense attorney, accused prosecutors working on the special counsel’s investigation of crossing a “red line” during grand jury proceedings.
In a statement after his testimony before the grand jury, Parlatore said it was “clear that the government was not acting appropriately and made several improper attempts to pierce privilege and, in my opinion, made several significant misstatements to the [grand] jury, which I believe constitutes prosecutorial misconduct.”
Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jdixonhamilton@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter.
Ted Cruz: Trump Indictment an ‘Assault on Democracy’
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said on The Verdict with Ted Cruz that the latest indictment against former President Donald Trump is “an assault on democracy.”
Cruz weighed in on the latest indictment against Trump on his podcast, The Verdict with Ted Cruz, saying, “Merrick Garland is going to go down in disgrace as the most partisan and political attorney general in our nation’s history. And Joe Biden, in the Biden White House, has decided to hell with democracy. By the way, today is an assault on democracy.”
He added, “This indictment is garbage. This is a political attack. It is a political attack from a thoroughly corrupted and weaponized Department of Justice. And it’s a sad day for America.”
The Texas senator noted that an FBI informant file linked President Joe Biden to a bribery scheme worth five million dollars:
If a president sold nuclear secrets to our enemies? I’d prosecute that former president for that. If a president was Benedict Arnold and conspired with our enemies against us, I’d prosecute a former president–Benedict Arnold wasn’t a former president, but that’s a great historical treason. If a president was receiving bribes from foreign nations, that’s the kind of thing you prosecute a former president for. Now, what’s astonishing is Joe Biden right now is currently facing allegations that he was personally party to a $5 million bribe from a foreign nation. That’s a big damn deal.
…
But as you noted, we actually know quite a bit about where the money went. We know that with respect to the Chinese, that there were millions of dollars that were paid to up to 12 different Biden family members. We know that with respect to the Ukrainians, that Burisma, the natural gas company paid Joe Biden’s son Hunter a million dollars a year, year after year after year, $83,000 a month. So where’s the money? That’s one place the money is. We also know that, at least in the Chinese deals, that the deals were structured with 10% for the big guy, that would be Joe Biden, that would be the current president. That’s where the money is.
Cruz said that Attorney General Merrick Garland harbors personal animosity against Trump for preventing him from getting confirmed to the Supreme Court.
“This is about hatred. Merrick Garland hates Donald Trump. He blames him, because Garland wants to be on the Supreme Court, he feels like he was robbed,” Cruz said. “And I gotta say Garland spent 24 years as a federal judge. He had built a reputation for integrity.”
He added, “And I am hard pressed to think of anyone in public life who has more lit their reputation on fire than Merrick Garland.”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
James Comer: There are more Biden documents
Elon Musk EXPOSED Joe Biden And Barack Obama's CORRUPTION!
TRUMP Campaign releases new ad, "Wolves"
7 reasons to be highly skeptical of the legitimacy of the indictments of Trump
One
The timing of the announcement – controlled by the Justice Department’s decision to inform President Trump – coincides with evidence of serious allegations of a $5 million bribe of then-Vice President Biden by a foreign national reaching Congress. A perfect way to crowd out news coverage.
The decision to inform Trump of charges came on the same day that members of the House Oversight Committee were granted access to a FBI report into an allegation of bribery, while Biden was vice president.
Two
In marked contrast to the special counsel investigation of President Biden, there have been multiple leaks to, among others, ABC News and the UK Independent, and many others.
Three
As Julie Kelly put it, “The indictment represents the first time in U.S. history a former president will face criminal charges.”
Four
The indictments are the product of an unprecedented raid on the residence of a president, at Mar-a-Lago.
Five
The seizure that resulted from the raid was overly broad, otherwise known as a fishing expedition:
Prosecutors admitted in court filings that agents absconded with roughly 13,000 items including apparel, books, and the president’s passports—but only found “one hundred unique documents with classification markings.”
Six
The media circus was immediate and intense, part of the joint effort of the deep state. The legacy media, and the Democrats, want to weaken President Trump’s candidacy in the general election, while solidifying his support among Republicans, so as to nominate a weaker (in the eyes of his opponents) candidate.
Seven
The indictment, as leaked, appears to be deliberately drawn up to excuse the violations of confidential document riles by Joe Biden. As Andrew McCarthy of National Review wrote, the use of the term “willful violations” is key:
...prosecutors are relying on a provision that criminalizes willful violations of the rules that government officials are required to follow in handling national-defense intelligence. This seems like an obvious effort to distinguish Trump’s alleged crime from President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, which the White House and the media-Democratic complex have described as inadvertent (snip)
The strategy of the Biden administration and its special counsel, then, seems to be (1) to allege that Trump committed a willful offense that puts him in a different, more egregious category from Biden’s conduct; and (2) to pretend in connection with Biden — as the Obama-Biden Justice Department pretended in connection with Hillary Clinton’s email scandal — that it is not a felony for government officials to be grossly negligent in mishandling classified information (i.e., to pretend that willfulness, or some intent to harm the United States, is an essential element of the offense).
Kevin McCarthy, the highest-ranking Republican elected official, nailed it, calling Thursday, “A dark day for the United States of America” on Twitter.
Grpahic credit: The Digital Artist Pixabay license
As Trump indicted for questionable crimes, real crimes uncovered by Durham Report remain unprosecuted
The DOJ just indicted former President Trump for what is a non-crime involving alleged possession of classified documents from the Mar-a-Lago raid last year (see analysis). Yet real crimes documented in the Durham Report remain unprosecuted. How is this not banana republic behavior?
John Durham released his report on the alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 presidential election. Durham concluded there was no Russian collusion. He confirms that the Russian narrative was a disinformation operation run by the unelected Deep State, including the FBI and others on behalf of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. Durham did not pursue Hillary Clinton's involvement or the source of the damaging DNC hack. If it wasn't the Russians, who was it? Seth Rich, perhaps? The FBI has deep-sixed Rich's laptop, too. Was Rich murdered to protect the false Russian Collusion narrative?
Durham did not recommend filing any criminal charges as the FBI implemented policies and procedures to prevent future occurrences. I'm not that naïve. Without individual accountability, there can be no reform. In my opinion, Durham did document well the failures of the FBI and others but did not follow the evidence where it led to its logical conclusion to prosecute the crimes committed by the FBI, DOJ, and others.
Was this unintentional by Durham because he couldn't see the forest for the trees, or was this intentional? In my opinion, these failures by the FBI and others were intentional — part of the effort that Professor Alan Dershowitz titled his recent book about: Get Trump: The Threat to Civil Liberties, Due Process and Our Constitutional Rule of Law.
Most likely, Durham, who had the power and authority to do so, deferred to protect the federal agencies rather than holding those who committed the crimes accountable, as former FBI director James Comey did with Hillary Clinton's possession of classified documents in her pay-to-play scheme. The crimes committed by the FBI and others are well known to the readers of the American Thinker and extend back to at least the Obama administration (here).
Many conspirators acting alone or in concert with others, including the FBI, CIA, and DNI, committed many crimes to attempt to secure Clinton's election as president. When Clinton lost the election, the conspiracy continued as a soft coup to undermine and sabotage the presidency of a duly elected president. The conspirators interfered with the 2016 election with the false Russian narrative and the 2020 election by suppressing the information on Hunter Biden's laptop as Russian disinformation.
Our federal agencies are no longer politically neutral and intentionally violate the Constitution with impunity — dogs that will hunt only for "right-wing extremists" to the exclusion of the Marxist left.
I believe that the Biden and Clinton families are criminal enterprises as defined in the RICO Act. Both families conspired with others, both foreign advisories and domestic operatives, to undermine, sabotage, and implement policies counter to the best interest and national security of the United States in return for their benefit — a cabal.
This cabal is a vast alliance that extends beyond the Biden and Clinton families and has corrupted our government through and through:
the World Economic Forum (WEF), the Globalists, the radical Marxist left, self-dealing and corrupt politicians, the Deep State, the ruling elite, the leftist media complex, big tech, multinational corporations, and foreign adversaries [China]. "These actors have robbed the public treasury of billions of dollars in broad daylight." These actors seek and are driven by control of the people, to retain and gain more power and money [my emphasis].
I emailed Durham several times that this cabal is an ongoing criminal conspiracy under RICO. RICO would allow individual criminal acts to be tied together under the RICO umbrella, extending the statute of limitations.
In my last email, I wrote:
The Russian Collusion narrative is within your mandate to investigate. I would challenge you to investigate all aspects of this false narrative as it will expose the perpetrators and those who aided or abetted in the commission of these crimes. ...
The DOJ, the FBI, the CIA, and others intentionally violated the civil rights of citizens, including the right of free speech, unreasonable search and seizure [Illegal wiretapping], ignored the rule of law and equal justice for all. Instead, all engaged in or covered up for politically based selective prosecutions by entrapment, lying, the abuse of power, and unlawful use of force under the color of authority.
You, Sir, have the authority and power to do so.
The fate of our Country is in your hands.
Kash Patel is a former federal prosecutor who worked national security cases and was the lead investigator for Congressman Devin Nunes in the investigation of the Russian Collusion narrative.
Patel castigated Durham:
There is no justification for Durham's alleged inability to utilize the grand jury process and subpoena individuals, according to Patel . . . There's no way he doesn't know how to use the grand jury process and subpoena individuals . . .
Moreover, Patel accused high-ranking officials, including former Attorney General Bill Barr, former Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, and former FBI Director James Comey as well as current officials like FBI Director Chris Ray and Attorney General Merrick Garland, of prioritizing the protection of their institutions over affecting necessary reforms.
The two-tier system of justice today continues because John Durham failed.
The case in chief to impeach Joe Biden is simply stated. Congress should impeach Biden, but this is not likely to happen:
Biden's policies are detrimental to the United States' strategic interests and outright violations of federal law and the Constitution. Joe Biden is a puppet of the Chinese and Ukraine (source). ...
Biden abdicated his constitutional duty to defend the border [An invasion]. The Chinese exploited this opportunity to flood the country with Fentanyl — supplying the Mexican cartels with the precursors to manufacture and distribute the Fentanyl. The Fentanyl is killing about one hundred thousand yearly to wreak havoc and chaos in our communities. The disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan directly benefited the Chinese. In his pursuit of green energy, Biden also immensely rewards the Chinese and others in this scam (here), which is a massive redistribution of wealth (source).
Victor Davis Hanson calls it Our French Revolution. Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. calls it "The Fascist Threat." I can't entirely agree with Rockwell calling the local police thugs, but I agree on our federal Stasi:
Fascism is the system of government that cartelizes the private sector, centrally plans the economy to subsidize producers, exalts the police state as the source of order, denies fundamental rights and liberties to individuals, and makes the executive state the unlimited master of society.
This describes mainstream politics in America today. And not just in America. It's true in Europe, too. It is so much part of the mainstream that it is hardly noticed any more. ...
In the long run even the most despotic governments with all their brutality and cruelty are no match for ideas. Eventually the ideology that has won the support of the majority will prevail and cut the ground from under the tyrant's feet. Then the oppressed many will rise in rebellion and overthrow their masters.
The constitutional checks and balances have failed to prevent the abuse of power and law violations because of systemic corruption. Our sheepdogs have gone rogue and no longer protect the flock from evil. The Judiciary, the DOJ, the FBI, the CIA, and others have gone full Stasi, supporting the authoritarian state (here and here).
These conspirators must be held accountable "to restore faith in the government we empower to govern. It is up to us, We the People, to do so."
The House Oversight Committee can, through the power of the purse, revise policies and procedures or reorganize or dismantle these agencies. Unfortunately, the committee can't prosecute individual conspirators.
I'm at a loss of how to hold those accountable who failed to uphold their oaths to defend the Constitution and committed crimes with Durham's failure to prosecute or recommend prosecution. The DOJ and FBI do the prosecution, but many of the high-level officials of these agencies are principals in these crimes — a Catch-22. Such accountability may have to wait for a new administration to clean house.
In the meantime, become involved. Do seek out alternative sources of information, don't be sheeple mindlessly trusting the government, don't succumb to state propaganda, and don't be afraid to raise your voice and ensure free and uncorrupted elections.
Exposing the truth is all-powerful!
Ron Wright is a retired detective, having served thirty-five years with Riverside P.D., Calif. Ron earned a B.A. in political science from Cal State University, Fullerton, and a Master of Administration from the University of California, Riverside. Facebook at Ron T. Cop.
Unofficial banana republic flag by Federico Zenith (public domain).
Hillary Clinton Promotes ‘But Her Emails’ Hat in Wake of Trump Indictment
Twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton decided to mock former President Donald Trump on Friday following news of the federal prosecutors indicting him, promoting “But Her Emails” merchandise on social media.
“Bringing this back in light of recent news: Get a limited-edition But Her Emails hat and support @onwardtogether groups working to strengthen our democracy,” Clinton wrote, sharing a link and a photoshopped image of her wearing the hat.
The phrase stems from the controversy around Clinton’s past email scandal.
Clinton, who served as Secretary of State under former President Barack Obama, mishandled classified information on a private server “likely used to hide efforts to use her office to raise money for her family’s foundation,” as Breitbart News reported. She scrubbed 33,000 emails, but FBI Director James Comey infamously recommended against charges against Clinton in the summer of 2016. That statement was also reportedly watered down to soften the gravity of Clinton’s actions.
Her social media post follows Trump revealing that federal prosecutors are indicting him as part of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into handling of White House documents.
This is not the first time Clinton has promoted the merchandise as a means to mock her former challenger, doing so after the FBI raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home last year.
RELATED– Hillary Clinton: ‘Dangerous Hypocrisy’ Republicans Enthralled to ‘Fraud’ Trump
Twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton decided to mock former President Donald Trump on Friday following news of the federal prosecutors indicting him, promoting “But Her Emails” merchandise on social media.
“Bringing this back in light of recent news: Get a limited-edition But Her Emails hat and support @onwardtogether groups working to strengthen our democracy,” Clinton wrote, sharing a link and a photoshopped image of her wearing the hat.
The phrase stems from the controversy around Clinton’s past email scandal.
Clinton, who served as Secretary of State under former President Barack Obama, mishandled classified information on a private server “likely used to hide efforts to use her office to raise money for her family’s foundation,” as Breitbart News reported. She scrubbed 33,000 emails, but FBI Director James Comey infamously recommended against charges against Clinton in the summer of 2016. That statement was also reportedly watered down to soften the gravity of Clinton’s actions.
Her social media post follows Trump revealing that federal prosecutors are indicting him as part of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into handling of White House documents.
This is not the first time Clinton has promoted the merchandise as a means to mock her former challenger, doing so after the FBI raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home last year.
RELATED– Hillary Clinton: ‘Dangerous Hypocrisy’ Republicans Enthralled to ‘Fraud’ Trump
Tim Scott on Trump Indictment: We Are Seeing ‘Weaponization’ of DOJ Against a Former President
Republican presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) said Thursday on FNC’s “Fox News Tonight” that we were seeing “weaponization of the Department of Justice against a former president” when responding to reports the former president Donald Trump will be indicted in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents probe.
Anchor Harris Faulkner said, “We turn now to Senator Tim Scott, running in the Republican field for the nomination of the Republican Party for the White House against Donald Trump. Senator, it’s an awkward position to be in, but the bottom line is you’re a Republican. This was a Republican president. Look what’s happened. Your reaction.”
Scott said, “Well, Harris, more importantly I’m an American. Let’s look at what’s happening to an American. More importantly then the Republicans and Democrats, red or blue, black or white, is this notion that our nation is the greatest nation on earth because Lady Justice has a blindfold on. That means Republicans are not hunted and Democrats are not protected. It means that we look at every single case based on the evidence. In America, every single person is presumed innocent, not guilty. What we’ve seen over the last several years is the weaponization of the Department of Justice against a former president. You don’t have to be a Republican to see injustice and want to fix it. You don’t have to be a Democrat to see injustice and want to fix it. You just have to be an American and stand up for the right thing.”
He added, “I don’t care whether you’re in my party or not in my party. I don’t care if you look like me or not. The one thing that makes America the city on the hill is confidence in our justice system, and today what we see is a justice system where the scales are weighted.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
J.D. Vance: Biden ‘Using the Justice System to Preemptively Steal the 2024 Election’
Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) described the most recent indictment of former President Donald Trump as a “moral and constitutional joke,” blasting Attorney General Merrick Garland as a “disgrace” and asserting that President Biden is “using the justice system to preemptively steal the 2024 election.”
“The former president will be indicted for ‘mishandling’ his own government’s classified info. Yet everyone agrees the president has the authority to declassify anything,” Vance said.
“This is a moral and constitutional joke. Merrick Garland has disgraced this country,” the senator continued, asserting that “Biden is attacking his most likely 2024 opponent.”
“He’s using the justice system to preemptively steal the 2024 election. This is what’s happening, plain and simple,” he added.
Vance’s remarks follow Trump revealing on Truth Social that U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors notified his attorneys of the indictment, associated with Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into his handling of White House documents.
Trump wrote in part:
The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax, even though Joe Biden has 1850 Boxes at the University of Delaware, additional Boxes in Chinatown, D.C., with even more Boxes at the University of Pennsylvania, and documents strewn all over his garage floor where he parks his Corvette, and which is “secured” by only a garage door that is paper thin, and open much of the time.
“I am an innocent man,” Trump said. “The Biden administration is totally corrupt.”
The GOP frontrunner concluded that these actions are those of “election interference” and described them as a “continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time.”
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