Jordan seeks interview with top prosecutor on Trump Mar-a-Lago case

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has requested that special counsel Jack Smith’s top lawyer for the Mar-a-Lago case meet with the committee, the latest escalation in the investigation into those who prosecute former President Trump.

In a letter to Jay Blatt on Thursday, he accused prosecutors of inflating allegations of wrongdoing by holding meetings at the White House.

The investigation goes to the heart of Republican-backed but unfounded allegations that there may have been coordination between the Biden administration and those working to prosecute Trump.

Jordan’s letter focuses on three meetings Brat has had at the White House since the Biden administration took office, which he argues “create the impression, at a minimum, of improper coordination.”

But two of those incidents occurred in 2021, before the National Archives notified the Justice Department that it was having problems retrieving records from Trump’s presidency, a notification that wasn’t made until February 2022.

Brat’s third White House meeting, in March 2023, was about the Mar-a-Lago investigation. The Washington Post It previously reported that the lawyer met with career White House staffers who worked in both the Trump and Biden administrations to discuss moving the boxes.

It is not uncommon for prosecutors to question government officials in their offices.

Still, the issue has been a long-running focus for Jordan, who has previously questioned Attorney General Merrick Garland and White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients about the meeting.

It was also part of a request Jordan made to Smith’s team in December asking the special counsel to turn over most of the records related to the prosecution against Trump.

Thursday’s letter was addressed directly to Brat, with Jordan writing that after not receiving a response from other lawmakers, he was “compelled to write to you directly to ask for your voluntary cooperation in our constitutional oversight efforts.”

The Justice Department declined to comment on the letter.

But Garland on Tuesday accused Republicans of a “long-running attack” on the Justice Department, including threats to cut off funding for special counsel investigations, saying “career investigators and prosecutors are being targeted simply for doing their jobs.”

Jordan is focusing not only on Brat’s meeting but also on arguments made by Stanley Woodward, the lawyer representing Walt Nauta, Trump’s co-defendant in the case.

Court documents filed by Woodward Prosecutors said they noticed Woodward being mentioned as a possible judge when they met with Blatt. Blatt later countered that he was merely referring to Woodward’s involvement with a committee that handles judicial nominations.

“Bratt then added something to the effect of, ‘I don’t want to do anything to ruin that,'” Woodward reported.

The special counsel’s office has disputed Woodward’s summary of the meeting, arguing that Brat was merely pointing out Woodward’s involvement with the Judicial Nominating Commission, a committee that Woodward had been named to but was not yet a member of, creating confusion between the two lawyers.

“Mr. Blatt communicated this to Mr. Woodward early in his meetings with him purely as a professional courtesy and to indicate to Mr. Woodward his understanding that Mr. Woodward was likely to have a good reputation and nothing more,” Smith’s team wrote in court documents.

“Setting aside the confusing details, prosecutors who attended the meeting have made it clear that Mr. Blatt’s comments did not contain any threats or suggestions of quid pro quo and that the exchange was purely professional.”

Woodward brought up the meeting in wide-ranging arguments in a Florida courtroom last month seeking to dismiss Nauta’s indictment for prosecutorial misconduct, a move one member of Smith’s defense team called a “frivolous argument.”

But Jordan alleges that “as your defense team and undisclosed documents demonstrate, you engaged in a series of improper actions and unethical conduct that violated the Department of Justice’s fair trial obligations.”

The letter asks Brat to turn over a trove of documents and communications about the White House meeting, as well as any communications relating to Woodward.

The letter criticizes Brat for his handling of Trump’s case, including the search of documents at Mar-a-Lago and his request that prosecutors ask Judge Eileen Cannon to find that Trump’s false statement that the FBI was authorized to “take me out” was a violation of his release conditions.

“Your conduct continues to raise serious concerns about the corrupt tactics of the Office of Special Counsel and the Department of Justice’s commitment to fair trials,” Jordan wrote.

The letter is one of a series of actions Jordan has taken following Trump’s conviction in New York for covering up payments he made to porn actresses before the 2016 election.

Jordan has called for cuts to the FBI and the limited federal funding given to local prosecutors, and he also signed onto a criminal complaint accusing the Biden family of lying to Congress.