XPost: alt.lawyers, alt.politics.trump, alt.politics.republicans   
   XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.guns, sac.politics   
   From: democrat-criminals@mail.house.gov   
      
   https://news.yahoo.com/lawyer-trump-valet-mar-lago-203844422.html   
      
   The lawyer for Donald Trump’s valet, under scrutiny in the Mar-a-Lago   
   documents investigation, has submitted court papers describing a meeting   
   at which a top federal prosecutor brought up his application to be a judge   
   when they tried to gain the valet’s cooperation last year, according to   
   three people familiar with the matter.   
      
   The allegation, described in a letter filed under seal with the chief US   
   judge in Washington, James Boasberg, could affect the investigation just   
   as prosecutors are considering whether to bring charges.   
      
   Related: Trump’s lawyers told he is target in Mar-a-Lago documents   
   investigation   
      
   Even though prosecutors have no control over the success of judicial   
   applications, the fact that it was raised in the context of trying to   
   persuade a lawyer for a witness to recommend cooperating could give the   
   appearance of coercion in one of the justice department’s most high-   
   profile cases.   
      
   At issue is an incident that took place last year, around November, when   
   prosecutors were trying to gain the cooperation of valet Walt Nauta, who   
   has been under scrutiny because prosecutors suspected he helped the former   
   president conceal classified documents that had been subpoenaed.   
      
   Nauta had already spoken to prosecutors in the investigation when they   
   called his lawyer Stanley Woodward and summoned him to a meeting at   
   justice department headquarters for an urgent matter that they were   
   reluctant to discuss over the phone, the letter said.   
      
   When Woodward arrived at the conference room, he was seated across from   
   several prosecutors working on the investigation, including the chief of   
   the counterintelligence section, Jay Bratt, who explained that they wanted   
   Nauta to cooperate with the government against Trump, the letter said.   
      
   Nauta should cooperate with the government because he had given   
   potentially conflicting testimony that could result in a false statements   
   charge, the prosecutors said according to the letter. Woodward is said to   
   have demurred, disputing that Nauta had made false statements.   
      
   Bratt then turned to Woodward and remarked that he did not think that   
   Woodward was a “Trump guy” and that “he would do the right thing”, before   
   noting that he knew Woodward had submitted an application to be a judge at   
   the superior court in Washington DC that was currently pending, the letter   
   said.   
      
   The allegation, in essence, is that Bratt suggested Woodward’s judicial   
   application might be considered more favorably if he and his client   
   cooperated against Trump. The letter was filed after Trump’s lawyers   
   submitted a motion on Monday seeking grand jury transcripts, because of   
   what they viewed as potential misconduct.   
      
   The justice department’s characterization of the meeting is unclear – a   
   spokesperson declined to comment – though a more innocent explanation for   
   the exchange could be, for instance, that Bratt was genuinely surprised to   
   see the application and raised it as an aside.   
      
   Prosecutors also regularly collect background information about lawyers   
   they meet with, including prior interactions with the justice department   
   and cases they have argued, and it is not unusual for them to make small   
   talk with defense lawyers about other projects they are involved in.   
      
   The extent of any potential impact to the case is similarly unclear, since   
   it does not appear to have directly affected any testimony Nauta gave to   
   prosecutors, and Bratt would not have the ability to influence such an   
   application, which is handled by the White House counsel’s office.   
      
   “Even if it’s true, it would not rise to the level of prosecutorial   
   misconduct,” former US attorney Joyce Vance said. “Prosecutors don’t have   
   any influence over judicial applications and all the parties to the   
   conversation would have known that.”   
      
   But the exchange is said to have unnerved Woodward, who recounted the   
   exchange to associates after leaving the meeting. He also promptly   
   informed the justice department at the time they would have no further   
   communications unless Nauta was getting charged or an immunity deal.   
      
   The development comes as prosecutors formally told Trump’s lawyers last   
   week that the former president had been designated a “target” in the   
   criminal investigation into his handling of national security information   
   and obstruction of justice, the Guardian previously reported.   
      
   The move – the clearest sign yet that Trump is on course to be indicted –   
   dramatically raises the stakes for Trump, as the investigation nears its   
   conclusion after taking evidence before a grand jury in Washington and a   
   previously unknown grand jury in Florida.   
      
   Trump’s lawyers were sent a “target letter” days before they met on Monday   
   with the special counsel and the senior career official in the deputy   
   attorney general’s office, where they asked prosecutors not to charge the   
   former president in part because of potential misconduct.   
      
   The development comes as prosecutors have obtained evidence of criminal   
   conduct occurring at Mar-a-Lago and decided that any indictments should be   
   charged in the southern district of Florida, where the resort is located,   
   rather than in Washington, according to people familiar with the matter.   
      
   To that end, prosecutors last month started issuing subpoenas to multiple   
   Trump aides that compelled them to testify before a new grand jury in   
   Florida, impaneled around the time that the grand jury in Washington   
   stopped taking new evidence, the Guardian previously reported.   
      
      
      
   --   
   We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that   
   stupid people won't be offended.   
      
   Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem.  It has none.   
      
   No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.   
   Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.   
      
   Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden   
   fiasco, President Trump.   
      
   Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the   
   The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood   
   queer liberal democrat donors.   
      
   President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed   
   dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)