WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Lawyers for former U.S. President Donald Trump met with U.S. Department of Justice officials on Monday to argue against charging the former president in a federal probe over his handling of classified documents, the Washington Post reported, citing a person familiar with the situation.
The Justice Department is investigating whether Trump mishandled sensitive government materials he kept after leaving the White House in 2021.
It is one of several criminal probes Trump faces as he seeks to regain the presidency next year.
At least two of Trump’s lawyers sought to make their case at the department, the Post said.
It was not immediately clear what any potential meeting between the lawyers and the Justice department may mean for Trump. Lawyers will typically meet with Justice Department representatives before an indictment is handed down.
Representatives for the Department of Justice declined to comment on the reports.
Trump is the first U.S. president ever to face criminal charges, having pleaded not guilty in April to felony charges brought by the Manhattan district attorney of falsifying business records relating to hush money paid to a porn star before his election in 2016.
Trump, the front-runner in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has described himself as the victim of a politically motivated witch hunt and has accused the Justice Department of partisan bias.
CNN, which also reported the lawyers’ meeting, said the grand jury was expected to hear from another witness in the documents case this week, following similar reporting by NBC News over the weekend.
Representatives for Trump also could not be immediately reached. His lawyers last month sent the department a letter asking for a meeting with U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Garland has tapped Special Counsel Jack Smith to oversee the documents case as well as the role of Trump and others in a wide range of actions surrounding his election loss that culminated in his supporters’ attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump over the weekend cited media reports that federal prosecutors “want to indict me” over the documents and said he was “at least as innocent” as his former vice president Mike Pence, who faced no charges after cooperating with authorities when a classified document was found in his Indiana home last year.
Federal investigators are examining whether Trump and his associates broke the law by retaining U.S. documents after leaving the White House and whether they then tried to obstruct the Justice Department’s investigation.
Trump also faces a state-level probe by a Georgia county prosecutor.
(Writing by Susan Heavey and Andy Sullivan; Additional reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Nathan Layne; Editing by Howard Goller)
