Trump was not interested in negotiating settlement over mishandling of secret papers, report says

Member of Trump’s legal team suggested move to preempt charges in late 2022

A current member of former President Donald Trump’s legal team suggested as far back as 2022 that his client should seek a settlement with the federal government over allegations that he retained presidential records and classified materials including, reportedly, defence documents.

That lawyer was Christopher Kise, according to the Washington Post, who was seen with the twice-impeached ex-president as recently as Tuesday for the latter’s appearance before a Miami judge.

The Post reported that Mr Kise suggested late last year that Mr Trump could seek a settlement with the DoJ as a means of “tak[ing] the temperature down,” and (hopefully) successfully preempting any decision by special counsel Jack Smith to bring charges.

That obviously didn’t happen, though Mr Kise would remain a part of the former president’s legal team; he declined to comment for the Post’s story. But it shows that even some among Mr Trump’s own legal team apparently think that the DoJ’s case is strong enough to be worth pursuing that option.

A spokesperson for the Trump campaign, meanwhile, rejected that assertion entirely and repeated the former president’s evidence-free complaint that the DoJ’s prosecution was politically motivated. That argument has been rejected by a number of prominent Republicans in his own party, who have affirmed the seriousness of the allegations and the gravity of the evidence already released by the DoJ. It has been accepted, however, by GOP allies of the ex-president including many in the House of Representatives.

“President Trump has consistently been in full compliance with the Presidential Records Act, which is the only law that applies to Presidents and their records,” Steven Cheung told the Post. “In the course of negotiations over the return of the documents, President Trump told the lead DOJ official, ‘anything you need from us, just let us know.’ Sadly, the weaponized DOJ rejected this offer of cooperation and conducted an unnecessary and unconstitutional raid on the President’s home in order to inflict maximum political damage on the leading presidential candidate.”

Mr Trump laid out those complaints again on Tuesday evening following his arraignment on a 37-count indictment in Miami, arguing that photo evidence released by the agency was staged and repeating a misconception about the Presidential Records Act and a Bill Clinton-era court ruling which his allies have argued gave him the right to unilaterally deem the retained documents “personal” records.

He stands accused of violating the Espionage Act and a number of other violations of the law including witness tampering; meanwhile, he faces a separate 34-count indictment in New York over a 2016 hush money scheme involving porn star Stormy Daniels.