While President Biden has repeatedly claimed that the Justice Department has full autonomy and isn't 'weaponized' against political opponents, a new report by the NY Post suggests otherwise.
Just weeks before Special Counsel Jack Smith brought charges against Donald Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents, one of his top aides met with the White House counsel's office, raising serious concerns about coordinated legal efforts against Biden's top political opponent going into the 2024 election.
According to the report, Jay Bratt, one of Smith's minions since November 2022, took a meeting with the White House on March 31 of this year with deputy chief of staff for the WH counsel's office, Caroline Saba. The two were joined in the 10am meeting by FBI agent Danielle Ray.
Nine weeks later, Trump was indicted by Smith's office.
The 63-year-old Bratt also met with Saba at the White House in November 2021, when Trump's legal team was in discussions with the National Archives over the return of presidential records from his Mar-a-Lago estate prior to a formal investigaiton.
Bratt had a third meeting in the White House in September 2021, this time with Katherine Reily, an advisor to the White House chief of staff’s office.
The logs offer no information about what was discussed at the meetings.
Critics and legal experts questioned why Bratt was taking meetings at all with the White House counsel’s office while part of an active investigation into President Biden’s likely 2024 Republican opponent.
“There is no legitimate purpose for a line [DOJ] guy to be meeting with the White House except if it’s coordinated by the highest levels,” said former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a one-time top federal prosecutor in the Southern District. -NY Post
Saba left the White House in May to attend law school.
As Mark Levin noted on X;
THIS IS A MASSIVE STORY!
That's why it will be ignored by the Democrat Party media. That said, Bratt not only met with Biden's staff at the White House while investigating Donald Trump and weeks before Trump was charged, Bratt is the senior DOJ official who insisted on securing a warrant and sending an FBI SWAT team to Mar-a-Lago; and, Bratt stands accused by Stanley Woodward, who represents Walt Nauta in the documents case, of extorting him (Bratt allegedly told Woodward that the judgeship he is seeking has a better chance if his client turns on Trump). Judge Cannon should order, from the bench, that all records related to Bratt's meetings and discussions at the White House be preserved and provided to the court; and, she should ask the DC judge who has been dragging his feet in his secret review of the allegation against Bratt by Woodward transfer that matter and all the information related to it to her as it clearly bears on the document case that is now before her and in her jurisdiction.
Yet again, I am forced to ask, where the hell are Trump's lawyers? They should file a motion immediately seeking a court order for the information (mentioned above) and make a big stink about this outrageous news.
Let me add another important point. THIS CLEARLY adds to the overwhelming case for a special counsel, as this not only creates the impression of a conflict of interest but a conflict of interest in fact. The Biden administration cannot be relied on to truthfully explain itself. The standard for appointing a special counsel -- a qualified lawyer from outside the government -- has been met, again!
When asked if he thinks the White House and special counsel were coordinating, Rudy Giuliani told the Post: "You’re damn right I do."
"What’s happening is they have trashed every ethical rule that exists and they have created a state police. It is a Biden state prosecutor and a Biden state police."
Constitutional law scholar Jonathan Turley of George Washington University told the outlet that the March meeting was particularly troublesome and "raises obvious concerns about visits to the White House after [Bratt] began his work with the special counsel."
"There is no reason why the Justice Department should not be able to confirm whether this meeting was related to the ongoing investigation or concerns some other matter," said Turley.
We're sure the DOJ will get right on prosecuting itself.
