On Wednesday, Tim Parlatore, a former attorney for former President Donald Trump, described on CBS prosecutorial misconduct undertaken by Special Counsel Jack Smith's team in the grand jury investigation on whether to indict the former president of mishandling classified government documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
He said in the interview, "I was really stunned by what I saw in the grand jury room by the conduct of the prosecutors. They made many attempts to try to get privileged communications, they would ask me about conversations with my client. They would make improper references to the jury trying to mislead them about that."
"At one point it got to the level where they're asking me this again, and then they'll turn to the grand jury and say you're refusing to provide this information," Parlatore said. "No, I'm not refusing to provide, the ethical rules prohibit me, even if the answer to this question is helpful. I'm not allowed to give it, and I turned to the jury and said, and she knows it. She knows that it's an improper question."
Parlatore said the exchange went on to improperly infer that "if the person's so cooperative, why won't he waive privilege and allow you to tell the grand jury about his conversations?" Which is a way to imply that a person is guilty "based on the invocation of a constitutional right."
"It's the kind of thing that if that had happened in a trial court, the judge would have immediately stopped, everything probably declared a mistrial, and it's the kind of thing that quite frankly, an attorney, a prosecuting attorney who willfully does that type of thing would potentially face discipline," He concluded.
The FBI raided former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in August, where he was found to be in possession of boxes of government documents. Attorney General Merrick Garland alleges that he was not supposed to have the documents at his house, and special counsel Jack Smith was assigned to investigate the matter.
On June 1, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan demanded answers from AG Garland as to what extent the FBI was involved in the investigation.
"Due to the FBI’s documented political bias, the Justice Department must ensure any ongoing investigations are not poisoned by this same politicization," Jordan said in a letter.
As reported on Wednesday, Trump is expected to be indicted next week on charges of "gathering, transmitting, or losing" national defense documents.
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