DOJ classified documents case prosecutor retires ahead of Trump inauguration [View all]
Last edited Tue Jan 7, 2025, 06:30 AM - Edit history (1)
Source: USA Today
Published 5:31 p.m. ET Jan. 6, 2025 | Updated 5:32 p.m. ET Jan. 6, 2025
WASHINGTON – A senior Justice Department prosecutor who led the investigation into former President Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents has resigned. Jay Bratt, 65, led the investigation overseen by special counsel Jack Smith into documents Trump from the White House when he left office in January 2021.
“I have left the Department of Justice as of January 3, 2025,” Bratt said in an automated email response on his Justice Department personal account. Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr confirmed to USA TODAY that Bratt had retired after spending 34 years at DOJ.
For a time, many legal observers had regarded the classified documents case as the most perilous of all the legal threats and prosecutions of the former president. A Trump-appointed judge in Florida later dismissed the case, and the Justice Department dropped its appeals after Trump won election in November, citing a policy against prosecuting sitting presidents.
A former DOJ colleague said top Justice Department officials held a retirement party for Bratt last Friday afternoon at DOJ headquarters. The colleague, who is familiar with Bratt's thinking, said his decision to retire was based, at least in part, on that fact that the classified documents case that he worked on for years no longer exists. "If the case were still proceeding, would he be retired? Probably not," the former colleague said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss Bratt's decision. "But it’s gone, and he's 65 and he said, 'I think I'm ready.'"
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2025/01/06/doj-prosecutor-jay-bratt-resigns-trump/77486155007/
= new reply since forum marked as read