By Steve Neavling
The Justice Department offered immunity to Kash Patel, a close adviser to former President Trump, to testify to a federal grand jury about the storage of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
In early October, Patel appeared before a grand jury as part of the investigation but repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.
Now prosecutors are offering him immunity to obtain his testimony, The New York Times reports.
Following the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago, Patel claimed that he “personally witnessed” Trump declassifying records before he left the presidency.
“On the way out of the White House he issued further declassification orders declassifying whole sets of documents,” he told Fox News.
“He can literally stand over a set of documents and say these are now declassified and that is done with definitive action immediately,” Mr Patel added.
Renato Mariotti, a legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, said in a Twitter thread that the DOJ likely reached the immunity deal to get Patel to testify under oath that his statements about Trump declassifying the documents were false.
