Here’s What We Know As Grand Jury Reportedly Meeting This Week

Topline

The grand jury hearing the Justice Department’s case against former President Donald Trump retaining classified White House documents is set to meet this week after a hiatus, according to NBC News, as the government’s long-running investigation into the former president reportedly nears an end—though it still remains to be seen if it will lead to an indictment against Trump.

Former President Donald Trump speaks during an event at Mar-a-Lago on April 4 in West Palm Beach, … [+] Florida.

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Key Facts

The Justice Department has been investigating Trump retaining White House documents since February 2022, after discovering the former president brought back classified materials with him to Mar-A-Lago, and is also probing whether Trump unlawfully obstructed that investigation.

Special counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed in November to oversee the DOJ’s investigations into Trump to avoid any biases, is reportedly “all but finished obtaining testimony and other evidence,” the Wall Street Journal reported on May 23, suggesting Smith will soon decide whether Trump should be charged.

The grand jury that’s been hearing evidence in the case—and would vote on Trump’s indictment—will reportedly meet this week after a hiatus, NBC News reported based on anonymous sources familiar with the investigation.

It’s still unclear if the grand jury would consider an indictment at this time or would still be continuing to hear evidence in the case, NBC notes.

Trump’s attorneys also reportedly may meet with DOJ officials this week, according to sources cited by CBS News, and the outlet reports his attorneys were spotted entering DOJ headquarters Monday morning.

The meeting comes after the ex-president’s legal team wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland in May asking for a meeting to discuss the investigation; such a request is “typically the final arrow in the quiver of a defendant trying to stave off indictment,” former U.S. attorney and deputy assistant attorney general Harry Litman wrote in the Los Angeles Times.

What To Watch For

It’s still unclear when an indictment against Trump could be brought—if one is at all—and what he would be specifically indicted for. The DOJ has suggested in court filings it’s investigating whether Trump violated three federal statutes that concern the mishandling of government materials, including the Espionage Act, which prohibits sharing national defense information or “willfully retain[ing]” it and “fail[ing] to deliver it on demand to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it.” Trump could also be charged for obstruction, and federal law sets out a punishment of up to 20 years in prison for anyone who “knowingly alters, destroys, mutilates, conceals, covers up, falsifies, or makes a false entry in any record, document, or tangible object with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence” federal investigations. Under DOJ regulations, Smith has broad power to determine whether or not Trump should be indicted, and while Garland could object, he would only have grounds to do so under federal law if doing so would be “so inappropriate or unwarranted under established departmental practices that it should not be pursued.”

What We Don’t Know

If Trump will actually be indicted, though his allies are reportedly preparing for it. The Journal reports Trump’s close associates are “bracing for an indictment”—and plan to use it as a way to boost his campaign fundraising—and the New York Times reports some of Trump’s advisors “have privately predicted” he’ll be charged, “although they maintain he did nothing wrong.” A series of recent reports on Smith’s investigation suggests the special counsel may have evidence that suggests Trump kept documents despite knowing they were classified and should not have been in his possession, which could help bolster the DOJ’s case if an indictment is brought. The National Archives informed Trump in May it would hand over documents that show Trump knew the correct declassification process while he was in office, CNN reports—undercutting his claims that he was within his rights to retain classified materials because he could declassify them “even by thinking about it.” The DOJ also reportedly has possession of an audio recording of Trump from 2021 in which he acknowledged he kept a classified document, but did not have the power to declassify it now that he had left office, as well as detailed descriptions from Trump attorney Evan Corcoran about his work for Trump on the case. “The case is so strong. You cannot imagine his getting away with this,” Jill Wine-Banks, who served as a prosecutor on the Watergate scandal, said on MSNBC Sunday, predicting Trump is “toast.”

Tangent

The documents investigation is one of two probes into Trump that Smith is now overseeing, along with the DOJ’s ongoing probe into January 6 and Trump and his allies’ efforts to overturn the 2020 election. It’s “less clear” what the status of that investigation is and when it could wrap up, the Times noted in May. Trump has already been indicted in state court in connection to hush-money payments made during his 2016 campaign, but an indictment in either of the DOJ’s investigations would mark the first time a former president has been indicted on federal charges.

Chief Critic

Trump has long denied any wrongdoing in the documents investigation, maintaining he was allowed to bring the documents back to Mar-A-Lago with him under the Presidential Records Act and declassified materials. “All I know is this: everything I did was right. We have the Presidential Records Act, which I abided by 100 percent,” Trump said at a Fox News town hall on Thursday, claiming he has “the right to declassify as president.” (Experts have said Trump’s interpretation of the Presidential Records Act—which states White House documents become property of the National Archives once a president leaves office—are inaccurate, with presidential historian Timothy Naftali telling CNN Trump’s description of the law is “nonsense” and “a matter of fantasy.”)

Key Background

Federal investigators have recovered more than 11,000 White House documents from Mar-A-Lago that Trump brought back with him after leaving office, including 325 classified materials. Trump first turned over 15 boxes of documents to the National Archives in January 2022, which prompted the DOJ’s investigation when it was discovered Trump had retained classified documents. Investigators then issued a subpoena for any remaining classified documents at Mar-A-Lago last June, which resulted in an additional 38 classified documents being turned over, but federal agents searched Mar-A-Lago in August 2022 after having reason to believe more classified documents were being stored at Trump’s estate despite the subpoena. An additional 103 documents were found during the search, prompting the DOJ’s suspicions that Trump could have obstructed the investigation. The government has previously suggested in court filings prosecutors believe there’s evidence to indicate obstruction, saying in an August 2022 filing that agents searched Mar-A-Lago after prosecutors suspected that sensitive government materials were “likely concealed or removed” in a possible attempt to “obstruct the government’s investigation.”