A DOJ spokesperson confirmed that Jay Bratt, the DOJ official detailed to special counsel Jack Smith’s office, retired from the department on Jan. 3. No other details were provided, and Bratt hasn’t made a public statement.
He aggressively worked on the Smith special documents case and is credibly accused of threatening a witness and a lawyer.
The hardcore left will sorely miss him. Bratt should ask Biden for a pardon. He might be investigated.
HE ARRANGED THE AGGRESSIVE RAID OF MAR-A-LAGO
The FBI field office was concerned that politics motivated the DOJ’s approach of a surprise raid of Mar-a-Lago.
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Several FBI agents in the Washington field office were concerned about Jay Bratt’s aggressive tactics and political donations.
According to public records, Bratt, who worked for special counsel Jack Smith, had donated $600 to a former DOJ colleague’s unsuccessful Democratic primary campaign for the U.S. Senate in Oregon in 2007, $150 to the Oregon Senate Democratic Campaign Committee that same year, and a total of $500 to the Democratic National Committee in 1993 and 1994.
The Story
Steven D’Antuono, then the head of the bureau’s Washington field office and who has since retired, was concerned. He feared that the documents dispute would further erode public faith in the FBI. D’Antuono wanted to work with Trump’s attorney to arrange a consensual Mar-a-Lago search. [
“Jay was being a little overly aggressive,” D’Antuono recalled. “The aggressiveness that was there, from day one.”…
D’Antuono saw Trump as likely motivated by a desire to show off the classified documents.
However, Justice Department officials and some FBI officials believed that Trump’s continued possession of the documents was a direct threat to national security.
Bratt ordered D’Antuono to carry out the search ASAP using the most aggressive approach. During the agents’ conversation, they noticed something in the draft of the warrant they hadn’t noticed before—a criminal charge.
They noted that the draft search warrant included a potential criminal charge against Trump they did not recall seeing before: Section 2071 of Title 18.
The law made it illegal for an individual who possesses government documents to “willfully and unlawfully” conceal, remove, mutilate, obliterate, falsify, or destroy them. If a person is convicted of the charge, they shall “be disqualified from holding” any federal office.
“The barring from office charge,” D’Antuono recalled. “People saw that charge as ‘Aha, is that DOJ’s effort to get Trump?’”
The day after the meeting, D’Antuono got a scolding note from a DOJ official who’d joined the meeting by phone. “You and your leadership seem to have gone from cautious to fearful,” it said.
D’Antuono was ordered to carry out the raid the next day.
BRATT’S PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT
Bratt might also be guilty of “prosecutorial misconduct.” There was “the attempted extortion or witness tampering of one of the attorneys,”
One of Trump’s lawyers alleged that Justice Department counterintelligence chief Jay Bratt had attempted to exert inappropriate pressure on Trump co-defendant Walt Nauta and his attorney Stanley Woodward. Bratt threatened to charge Nauta if he didn’t help them. He also told the lawyer that it would help with his judgeship application if he helped.
The Story
According to Mr. Woodward, “Upon Mr. Woodward’s arrival at Main Justice, he was led to a conference room where Mr. Bratt awaited with what appeared to be a folder containing information about Mr. Woodward.”
“Mr. Bratt thereupon told Mr. Woodward he didn’t consider him to be a “Trump lawyer,” and he further said that he was aware that Mr. Woodward had been recommended to President Biden for an appointment to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
“Mr. Bratt followed up with words to the effect of “I wouldn’t want you to do anything to mess that up.”
The DOJ put it this way: “Bratt also informed Woodward that the Government was interested in obtaining Nauta’s potential cooperation and resolving this situation.”
Attorney Bratt referred it for disciplinary review, where it died.
Truth:
Another classic “voluntary interview” with the FBI, the kind where they just casually swing by and ask for some help. Bodyman happy to oblige. Ends up charged with “conspiracy to obstruct justice” because he didn’t think to have a team of lawyers prepare his answers in advance pic.twitter.com/IMaq33X5ss
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) June 9, 2023
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