Lead prosecutor on Trump documents case leaves US Justice Department, official says

WASHINGTON – A lead prosecutor on the criminal case accusing Donald Trump of illegally holding on to classified documents has left the US Justice Department ahead of the President-elect’s return to office, a department spokesperson confirmed on Jan 6.

Mr Jay Bratt, a senior national security official who was detailed to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office, retired from the department on Jan 3.

Trump, who is set to return to the presidency on Jan 20, and his allies have vowed to investigate political opponents and others who have levelled allegations of misconduct against him.

Mr Bratt’s departure comes as Justice Department lawyers, particularly those

involved in investigations

into Trump over the documents and his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat, weigh their future in a second Trump administration.

Trump has vowed to pardon at least some of the more than 1,600 people charged in

the Jan 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol by his supporters

and has suggested that former representative Liz Cheney, the lead Republican on a congressional panel that investigated the riot, should face an investigation.

Mr Bratt, 65, played a pivotal role in the investigation into

sensitive national security documents

that Trump took to his Mar-a-Lago residence and social club following the end of his first term as president in 2021.

Mr Bratt was not immediately available for comment.

His departure was previously reported by the website SpyTalk.

The investigation led to a court-approved Federal Bureau of Investigation search of the Florida club in August 2022 that turned up about 100 classified documents and enraged Trump and his supporters.

Mr Bratt joined Mr Smith’s office when the special counsel took over the investigation and helped secure an indictment accusing Trump of knowingly keeping the documents and obstructing US government attempts to retrieve them.

Trump pleaded not guilty and argued that the case, and other criminal cases against him, were politically motivated attempts to damage him and his political movement.

US District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump nominee, dismissed all charges in July 2024 after finding that Mr Smith was improperly appointed as special counsel.

Prosecutors had appealed against the ruling, but dropped their bid with respect to Trump after his election win. They signalled that they will seek to revive the case against two Trump associates, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, who were accused of obstructing the probe.

Mr Bratt and others in Mr Smith’s office formally handed the appeal to federal prosecutors in south Florida late in December.

Mr Bratt was the subject of a misconduct complaint brought by a lawyer defending Nauta, Mr Stanley Woodward, as part of a bid to dismiss the charges. Mr Woodward accused Mr Bratt of raising Mr Woodward’s pending application to be a local judge in Washington, DC, during a 2022 meeting, part of what Mr Woodward claimed was an attempt to coerce Nauta to cooperate with the government.

Prosecutors denied anything improper occurred and said Mr Bratt raised Mr Woodward’s application as a professional courtesy, according to court documents.

Mr Bratt spent decades in the Justice Department and most recently led a section focused on counter-intelligence and export control cases. REUTERS