Former President Trump’s attorneys are reportedly in touch with Justice Department officials for the first time as the DOJ’s Jan. 6 probe expands into Trump’s orbit, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
Discussions between Trump’s legal team and DOJ officials reportedly center around whether the former president would be allowed to shield discussions he had during his time in office from federal investigators, according to CNN.
Trump’s legal team is reportedly in talks with the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., which is leading the DOJ’s Jan. 6 investigation, and its top Jan. 6 prosecutor Thomas Windom, sources told CNN.
CNN reported that sources indicated that thus far, conversations are focused mostly about whether any communications that witnesses who served in the Trump West Wing had with him can be shielded from a federal criminal grand jury under Trump’s claims of executive privilege.
The Justice Department reportedly has been anticipating a legal battle with Trump over his claims of executive privilege — an argument that courts have overruled in the former president’s attempts to stonewall the Jan. 6 Select Committee’s separate investigation.
CNN’s report comes as several former Trump administration officials have reportedly cooperated with the DOJ’s Jan. 6 probe in recent weeks.
Last week, it was reported that Cassidy Hutchinson, former top aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, has cooperated with the DOJ’s Jan. 6 investigation. Hutchinson’s reported cooperation follows her shocking testimony during a Jan. 6 Select Committee public hearing in June, in which she offered a stunning firsthand account of Trump and his allies’ behavior in the days leading up to and on Jan. 6.
News of top advisers to former Vice President Mike Pence — his ex-chief of staff Marc Short and legal counsel Greg Jacob — appearing before a grand jury under subpoena in Washington in connection with the DOJ’s Jan. 6 probe also emerged the same week as reports on Hutchinson’s cooperation.
