By Steve Neavling
Former President Trump rejected a proposal by one of his new attorneys in the fall of 2022 to avoid criminal charges for his handling of classified records, The Washington Post reports.
The attorney, Christopher Kise, wanted to quietly arrange a settlement with the Justice Department in an effort to avoid charges against Trump.
The idea was to “take the temperature down,” he said, by being more cooperative and pledging to return all documents.
But after hearing from other attorneys, who proposed a more aggressive approach, Trump turned down the idea, and Kise never approached prosecutors.
Months later, Jack Smith was appointed special counsel to investigate Trump’s handling of classified records.
Trump now faces numerous charges for his alleged mishandling of classified documents.
In a statement, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung suggested Trump tried to be cooperative.
“President Trump has consistently been in full compliance with the Presidential Records Act, which is the only law that applies to Presidents and their records,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement. “In the course of negotiations over the return of the documents, President Trump told the lead DOJ official, ‘anything you need from us, just let us know.’ Sadly, the weaponized DOJ rejected this offer of cooperation and conducted an unnecessary and unconstitutional raid on the President’s home in order to inflict maximum political damage on the leading presidential candidate.”
