Former President Donald Trump - Photo by GL News
WASHINTON DC (WSAU) – Donald Trump, the former president, is said to have disregarded a plan late last year from one of his top attorneys to end the federal criminal investigation into his management of private U.S. government documents after the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago residence.
Attorney Christopher Kise reportedly thought that the U.S. Department of Justice, led by Attorney General Merrick Garland, did not want to charge the former president and that the department would be willing to accept a settlement in the case if the former president were to return all of the other documents, according to a report in The Washington Post.
According to The Post, Trump was “not interested” in the proposal after hearing advice from many in his circle who wanted him to take a different approach.
In the fall of 2021, then-Trump lawyer Alex Cannon encouraged the former president to return the papers to the National Archives and told about the severe legal ramifications he could face if he did not, according to the report.
Several of his aides told The Post that Trump reportedly said, “It’s not theirs, it’s mine.”
Former Trump White House attorney Eric Herschmann also cautioned the former president that defying the order could put him in legal danger.
Trump has claimed that the Presidential Records Act should make him legally clear to have the documents. However, former U.S. prosecutor Andrew McCarthy disagrees, saying that the Presidential Records Act only applies to notes and diaries and not to classified material.
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