The Department of Justice is advancing its investigations. And with the midterm elections mostly over and the 2024 presidential campaign months away from starting in earnest, federal prosecutors have plenty of time to continue their work even while Trump is on the campaign trail. “I don’t think the department will hesitate as a result of Trump nominating himself and being anointed the frontrunner in the 2024 election,” said former Justice Department attorney Michael Weinstein. “I just think they’re going to see that as him trying to play the system like he’s done with great success on the courts” and are prepared for his “feedback.” Trump enters the race facing federal investigations related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and the hoarding of top-secret government documents at his Florida estate — plus a separate state probe in Georgia. The Mar-a-Lago investigation has moved particularly quickly, with prosecutors this month granting immunity to a close Trump ally to secure his testimony before a federal grand jury. Justice Department lawyers in that investigation say they have gathered evidence of possible crimes involving not only obstruction but also willful retention of national defense information. It remains unclear whether anyone will be charged, as is the timeline for a decision. But former officials say the best way to ensure the outcome will be seen as the above censure is to conduct a thorough investigation without special favor or ill-treatment due to Trump’s former top office. “The public will have the most faith in what you do and you will have the most successful results if you treat Donald Trump like any other American,” said Matthew Miller, who served as a Justice Department spokesman under former Attorney General Eric . Holder. Current Attorney General Merrick Garland has suggested as much, saying last summer in response to questions about Trump and the Jan. 6 investigation that “no person is above the law.” Asked in a July television interview how a possible Trump nomination might affect the department, Garland replied: “We will hold accountable anyone who is criminally responsible for attempting to interfere with the transfer — legal, legal transfer — of power from one government to another.” The investigation of any elected official or candidate for office almost always prompts political speculation. Justice Department protocol cautions prosecutors against taking overt action in the run-up to an election, but that’s more of a formal convention than a hard-and-fast rule. And the 2024 presidential contest is two years away. However, it is not easy to research a former president or a current candidate. This is especially true in the case of Trump, who has spent his presidency attacking his own Justice Department and harassing the attorneys general he appointed. He has already criticized the FBI for investigating Mar-a-Lago in August, using the episode to raise money from supporters. Now, with his candidacy at the helm, he and his supporters will try to reframe the narrative of the investigation as a political prosecution by a Democratic administration that fears him for 2024. In fact, one risk for Democrats is that Trump — who in his announcement Tuesday said he was a “victim” — could re-energize his supporters with that argument. On the other hand, the results of last week’s midterm elections suggest that he may be politically more vulnerable than many, including in his own Republican Party, thought. What about past surveys of a presidential candidate? There is a recent precedent, albeit under different circumstances. In 2016, the Obama administration’s Justice Department investigated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for using a private email server as secretary of state. Despite the efforts of law enforcement officials who worked on the investigation to stay above the controversy, the investigation has repeatedly become mired in presidential politics — in ways that may not have been foreseen when it began. Then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch expressed regret over a chance meeting she had with Bill Clinton in the final days of the investigation. Former FBI Director James Comey has been accused of hurting Clinton’s candidacy by giving a detailed public explanation of why the bureau was not recommending charges and then reopening the investigation 11 days before the election. David Laufman, who oversaw that investigation for the Justice Department as head of the same division now conducting the Mar-a-Lago probe, said there is a “surreal disconnect” between the political maelstrom that accompanies politically charged investigations and heads down mentality. a prosecutor determined to just get the job done. “Here we were, conducting a criminal investigation with national security undertones in a way that was practically splashed on the front page of every newspaper every day,” Laufman said. “And all we could do was continue to do what we knew needed to be done – get all the relevant evidence needed to make a judgment as to whether it was appropriate to recommend criminal charges.” He said he believes investigators working at Mar-a-Lago were the same way, praising their professionalism amid public pressure and even concerns for their personal safety. In the Clinton case, Comey said he considered appointing a separate special counsel to lead the investigation, though ultimately did not. The choice of a specially appointed prosecutor to report to Garland exists here as well, as the Trump-era Justice Department appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller to lead the investigation into possible coordination between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia. It is not clear how seriously Garland would take this. A department spokesman declined to comment. Politics aside, much will ultimately depend on the strength of the Justice Department’s case in deciding whether to indict. “If the government’s case is extremely strong, I think the rule of law will weigh heavily in the attorney general’s calculation,” Laufman said.
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