Trump lawyers meet with special counsel Jack Smith as indictment speculation heats up

Former U.S. President Donald J. Trump visits the driving range, meets fans and watches Round 2 of LIV Golf Washington DC 2023 at Trump National Golf Club Washington DC in Sterling, Virginia, United States on May 27, 2023. 

Kyle Mazza | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Lawyers for Donald Trump met Monday morning with special counsel Jack Smith and other Department of Justice officials, a day after the former president complained about speculation that Smith is moving closer to seeking an indictment of him.

NBC News confirmed Trump lawyers on Monday met with those officials at the DOJ headquarters in Washington, D.C., after CBS News tweeted a photo of three attorneys walking into the building.

The lawyers, John Rowley, James Trusty and Lindsey Halligan, left the DOJ shortly before noon ET, but declined to comment, NBC reported.

Soon after the meeting ended, Trump posted an all-caps message to his Truth Social account, saying: “How can DOJ possibly charge me, who did nothing wrong, when no other presidents were charged.”

The meeting did not include Attorney General Merrick Garland or Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, according to NBC.

A spokesman for the special counsel’s office declined to comment.

Attorneys for former U.S. President Donald Trump; James Trusty, Lindsey Halligan and John Rowley, depart the U.S. Justice Department after meeting with Justice Department officials over the Trump Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, after Trump’s lawyers last month sent the department a letter asking for a meeting with U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, in Washington, U.S. June 5, 2023. 

Sarah Lynch | Reuters

Smith is investigating Trump in two separate cases.

One relates to Trump’s retention of government documents, many of them classified, at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida when he left the White House, and possible obstruction of justice in thwarting the recovery of that material by the National Archives and Records Administration.

NBC reported on Saturday that the federal grand jury that has been hearing evidence in that case is expected to resume proceedings this week in Washington.

Trump in a social media post on Sunday wrote, “Reports are the Marxist Special Prosecutor, DOJ, & FBI, want to Indict me on the BOXES HOAX, despite all of the wrongdoing that they have done for SEVEN YEARS, including SPYING ON MY CAMPAIGN.”

The other probe by Smith is focused on efforts by Trump and allies, including his campaign lawyers, to overturn his loss in the 2020 election of President Joe Biden, and effectively block confirmation of Biden’s victory in the Electoral College by a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.

CNBC Politics

Trump, who is seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is also being criminally investigated by a state prosecutor in Atlanta for his effort to get Georgia officials to reverse Biden’s victory in that state in 2020. Georgia was one of several swing states that Biden won, sealing his victory in the Electoral College.

Trump was criminally charged in March by a grand jury in New York City in an indictment accusing him of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment his then-lawyer Michael Cohen paid a porn star shortly before the presidential election in 2016.

Trump has pleaded not guilty in that case, which is scheduled to go to trial next March, in the middle of the presidential primary season.

He is the only U.S. president, former or otherwise, ever to be criminally charged.

– CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger contributed to this report.