前总统唐纳德·特朗普的法律团队已正式要求与司法部长梅里克·加兰(Merrick Garland)会面，他的律师担心，未来几周可能会对特朗普提起诉讼，原因是他涉嫌在离任后保留材料，并阻挠政府取回材料的努力。
这封信尽管细节不多，但还是发出了，以便特朗普的律师可以提出论点，即特朗普不应在与他所谓的指控有关的调查中受到指控机密文件处理不当知情人士告诉ABC新闻。
这封信要求加兰在方便的时候尽早召开会议，讨论律师们所说的特别顾问杰克·史密斯“正在犯下的持续不公正行为”，并表示没有一位总统以这样一种“非法的方式”受到“毫无根据的调查”
这封一页长的信由特朗普的律师约翰·罗利(John Rowley)和詹姆斯·特拉斯迪(James Trusty)签署，没有概述对史密斯及其团队不当行为的任何具体指控。
该请求没有具体详细说明特朗普的法律团队希望与司法部长讨论什么。特朗普一再否认与他处理带有分类标记的材料有关的任何不当行为。
尚不清楚特朗普的律师是否在史密斯调查的任何具体知识上采取行动。
特朗普周二晚上在他的真实社交账户上发布了这封信。
特朗普信函2013年5月23日经过ABC新闻政治
加兰的发言人和特别检察官办公室的发言人都拒绝对美国广播公司新闻发表评论。
特朗普律师的这封信是在特朗普团队与政府进行了一年多的谈判之后发出的，谈判导致信任破裂，导致政府于2022年5月发出文件传票，并于去年8月搜查了Mar-a-Lago。从那以后，正如美国广播公司新闻所说以前报告过，DOJ和川普的律师继续在遵守大陪审团传票的问题上争斗。
国家档案馆官员最初在2022年初要求司法部调查特朗普对白宫记录的处理，此前国家档案馆在1月份从特朗普在佛罗里达州的Mar-a-Lago度假村取回了15箱记录，这些记录是违反《总统记录法》从白宫不当取走的。
DOJ探测器在2022年8月8日达到了一个临界点，当时Mar-a-Lago被联邦调查局特工搜查。根据一份未密封的详细清单，联邦调查人员在搜查中查获了100多份带有机密标记的文件。仅从特朗普的办公室，就有43个夹着分类横幅的空文件夹。
财产清单还显示，特工收集了超过1.1万份没有分类标记的文件或照片，所有这些文件或照片都被描述为美国政府的财产。
自8月份的搜查以来，特朗普和他的法律团队发现了额外的机密文件，并收到了附加传票政府认为可能仍在特朗普手中的信息。
作为美国广播公司新闻首次报道根据描述一名联邦高级法官密封文件内容的消息人士的说法，今年3月，特别顾问办公室的检察官提交了令人信服的初步证据，表明特朗普在离任后故意误导自己的律师保留机密材料。
在3月份的一份密封文件中，法官贝里尔·豪厄尔(Beryl Howell)命令特朗普律师埃文·科克兰(Evan Corcoran)遵守大陪审团的传票，就他此前声称的律师-客户特权作证。消息人士称，豪厄尔命令科科伦交出一些与她所说的特朗普所谓的“犯罪计划”有关的记录，这与检察官的说法一致。这些记录包括手写笔记、发票和个人录音转录。
特朗普律师提出会面请求之际，特朗普法律团队内部的内讧已经进入公众视野。
上周末，前特朗普律师蒂姆·帕拉托雷-谁离开了特朗普的法律团队上周——公开抨击特朗普的一名现任律师，指控鲍里斯·爱普施泰因(Boris Epshteyn)试图干扰对特朗普房产内机密材料的额外搜查。
“在我看来，他在某些事情上对我们或客户不够诚实。他曾试图干涉某些事情，比如搜查，”帕拉托雷说在CNN的一次露面中在星期六。Parlatore补充说，担任律师之间联络人的Epshteyn增加了为特朗普辩护的难度。
特朗普竞选团队的一名发言人在一份声明中表示，帕拉托雷的说法“绝对错误”。
Fearing indictment is imminent in classified docs probe, Trump team requests meeting with DOJ
Former President Donald Trump's legal team has formally requested a meeting with Attorney General Merrick Garland, amid fears from his attorneys that the coming weeks could bring a possible indictment of Trump regarding his alleged efforts to retain materials after leaving office and to obstruct the government's attempts to retrieve them.
The letter, though thin on details, was sent so Trump's lawyers could present arguments that Trump should not be charged in the investigation related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.
The letter asks Garland for a meeting at his earliest convenience to discuss what the attorneys describe as the "ongoing injustice that is being perpetrated" by special counsel Jack Smith and says that no president has been "baselessly investigated" in such an "unlawful fashion."
The one-page letter was signed by Trump lawyers John Rowley and James Trusty, and does not outline any specific allegations of wrongdoing by Smith and his team.
The request does not specifically detail what Trump's legal team wants to discuss with the attorney general. Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing associated with his handling of materials bearing classification markings.
It's not clear whether Trump's attorneys are acting on any specific knowledge of Smith's investigation.
Trump posted the letter on his Truth Social account Tuesday night.
Trump Letter 05/23/23 by ABC News Politics
A spokesperson for Garland and a spokesperson for the special counsel's office both declined to comment to ABC News.
The letter from Trump's attorneys follows more than a year of negotiations between Trump's team and the government, which resulted in a breakdown of trust that led to the government's May 2022 subpoena for documents and its subsequent search of Mar-a-Lago last August. Since then, as ABC News has previously reported, the DOJ and Trump's lawyers have continued to battle over compliance with grand jury subpoenas.
National Archives officials initially asked the Justice Department in early 2022 to investigate Trump's handling of White House records after the National Archives in January retrieved 15 boxes of records from Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida that had been improperly taken from the White House in violation of the Presidential Records Act.
The DOJ probe hit a critical point on August 8, 2022, when Mar-a-Lago was searched by FBI agents. Federal investigators seized more than 100 documents with classified markings during the search, according to an unsealed detailed inventory list. From Trump's office alone, there were 43 empty folders seized with classified banners.
The property inventory list also showed agents gathered more than 11,000 documents or photographs without classification markings, all of which were described as property of the U.S. government.
Since the August search, Trump and his legal team have found additional classified documents and have received additional subpoenas for information that the government believes could still be in Trump's possession.
As ABC News first reported in March, prosecutors in the special counsel's office have presented compelling preliminary evidence that Trump knowingly and deliberately misled his own attorneys about his retention of classified material after leaving office, according to sources who described the contents of a sealed filing from a top federal judge.
In a sealed filing from March, Judge Beryl Howell ordered Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran to comply with a grand jury subpoena for testimony over which he had previously asserted attorney-client privilege. Sources said Howell ordered Corcoran to hand over a number of records tied to what she described as Trump's alleged "criminal scheme," echoing prosecutors. Those records included handwritten notes, invoices, and transcriptions of personal audio recordings.
The meeting request from Trump's attorneys comes as infighting within Trump's legal team has spilled into the public eye.
Over the weekend, former Trump lawyer Tim Parlatore -- who left Trump's legal team last week -- publicly blasted a current lawyer for Trump, alleging that Boris Epshteyn attempted to interfere with additional searches for classified material at Trump's properties.
"In my opinion, he was not very honest with us or with the client on certain things. There were certain things like the searches that he had attempted to interfere with," Parlatore said during an appearance on CNN on Saturday. Parlatore added that Epshteyn, who has served as somewhat of a liaison between the lawyers, made defending Trump more difficult.
A Trump campaign spokesperson said in a statement that Parlatore's assertions were "categorically false."
