Classified documents probe: Trump lawyers told by DOJ he is the target of investigation

Trump’s attorneys were told at Monday’s meeting in Washington, D.C., with prosecutors at the Justice Department that Trump is a target of the classified documents investigation, according to two sources briefed on the meeting.

That does not rule out the possibility that his legal team understood or was told he was a target before the meeting. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.

Former Trump lawyer Timothy Parlatore told CBS News that the former president's team has a defense plan should an indictment come down that includes alleging prosecutors committed misconduct in their investigation.

Parlatore said that the defense team's plan might have evolved since he left two weeks ago but that lawyers planned to file motions to dismiss any criminal charges because of alleged misconduct.

"Prosecutorial misconduct is a big issue that’s infecting this case," Parlatore said.

Parlatore has complained about prosecutors' conduct before. In March, he told NBC News that prosecutors had committed misconduct when they questioned him when he appeared before the grand jury to testify about his efforts to make sure Trump had no more government documents.

He said then that prosecutors had tried to bar him from discussing his attempts to include the FBI in the search and that they had improperly pressed him for information about his conversations with Trump. He said he'd refused to do so on the grounds of attorney-client privilege. Parlatore said the prosecutor asked him in front of the panel why Trump wasn't waiving that privilege, which he said was “completely improper.” 

The special counsel's office has declined to comment on the allegation.

Elsewhere in Smith's investigation ...

Former Trump White House official Steve Bannon has been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., in connection with Smith’s investigation into Jan. 6 and Trump’s efforts to stay in office, two sources familiar with the matter said.

The subpoena, for documents and testimony, was sent out in late May, the sources said. The grand jury investigating Trump’s actions surrounding Jan. 6 and in connection with efforts to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power is separate from the grand jury in Miami, which heard testimony Wednesday about Trump’s handling of classified documents.

Read the full story here.

Taylor Budowich has been quoted frequently on the classified documents. Here are some examples:

• "Just like every Democrat-fabricated witch hunt previously, the water of this unprecedented and unnecessary raid is being carried by a media willing to run with suggestive leaks, anonymous sources and no hard facts," Budowich told The New York Times.
• He criticized The Washington Post's coverage. He told The Independent that the Post “continues to serve as the propaganda arm of the Biden administration." He added, “Instead of operating openly and honestly, they collude in never-ending leaks and lies at the expense of the integrity of the FBI and DOJ [Department of Justice].”

Former Vice President Mike Pence, who launched his bid for the White House today, did not say whether an indictment of Trump should disqualify him from the 2024 presidential campaign.

Asked by NBC News' Jonathan Allen at a campaign event whether "President Trump should end his campaign if he's indicted in federal court," Pence smiled and then appeared to walk toward a crowd of his supporters.

While one of the former president's allies reported Wednesday that Trump has been told he's a target of federal prosecutors, he sidestepped the issue in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social.

"No one has told me I’m being indicted, and I shouldn’t be because I’ve done NOTHING wrong, but I have assumed for years that I am a Target of the WEAPONIZED DOJ & FBI," Trump wrote.

He also called on the GOP to come to his defense, writing in all caps, "Republicans in Congress must make this their #1 issue!!!"

Trump posted a quote on his social media website from a 2022 report from the American Bar Association that "seemed to agree with Trump’s assertion that 'guidelines support his contention that presidents have broad authority to formally declassify.'"

He appeared to be quoting from an article written by ally John Solomon on Wednesday that claimed that federal prosecutors informed Trump that he's a criminal target and will most likely be indicted imminently.

A fact-check from the ABA last year said legal guidelines support Trump's contention that presidents have broad authority to declassify most documents," but it says "while they are in office."

NBC News reported last year that legal and presidential records experts are skeptical of Trump's claim that any sensitive documents he took from the White House to Mar-a-Lago had been declassified.

Trump told The New York Times he hasn't been told that he's getting indicted, reporter Maggie Haberman tweeted.

This came in response, Haberman noted, to a report by one of Trump's allies that claimed he was sent a target letter.

Haberman added in a follow-up tweet that when she asked Trump whether he had been told he's a target, he "demurred, saying he doesn’t talk directly to prosecutors."

Shortly after his former campaign spokesman testified before a federal grand jury in Miami, Trump blasted the Justice Department, the FBI and others investigating him as "fascists" on his social media website.

"Wow, this is turning out to be the greatest & most vicious instance of ELECTION INTERFERENCE in the history of our Country," Trump wrote on Truth Social, suggesting he shouldn't be investigated by anyone because he's running for president and doing well in the polls.

He said "they are launching all of the many Fake Investigations against me RIGHT SMACK IN THE MIDDLE OF MY CAMPAIGN, something which is unheard of & not supposed to happen," he wrote of the multiple investigations, all of which began before he announced his campaign. "DOJ, FBI, NEW YORK A.G., NEW YORK D.A., ATLANTA D.A. FASCISTS ALL!" he concluded.