Ken Dilanian is the justice and intelligence correspondent for NBC News, based in Washington.
Dareh Gregorian contributed .
A lawyer for Donald Trump’s butler and body man — whose legal bills are being paid by a Trump political organization — is alleging in court papers that a key prosecutor in the classified documents case inappropriately sought to pressure him by bringing up his application for a D.C. judgeship, a source familiar with the matter told NBC News on Thursday.
The lawyer, Stanley Woodward, represents Walt Nauta, who is under scrutiny by investigators over his shifting accounts of whether he moved boxes of documents at Mar-a-Lago at the former president's urging.
In a letter filed under seal with the chief federal judge in Washington, the source said Woodward alleged that Jay Bratt, the Justice Department’s chief of counterintelligence, raised the issue of the judgeship during an October meeting at DOJ where prosecutors were trying to convince Woodward that Nauta had lied and should cooperate in the investigation. Bratt has been working for more than a year on the classified documents case.
The allegation was first reported by the Guardian. Woodward did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the special counsel declined to comment.
The source said Woodward’s allegation could raise questions about any prosecution of Nauta, a military valet in the Trump White House who went to work for the former president at Mar-a-Lago, adding that the Justice Department appears to be taking the allegation seriously and plans to respond to the judge.
The source said Woodward alleges that Bratt had with him a folder of information related to Woodward’s bid for a judgeship, and said to him, “I didn’t take you for a Trump guy.”
“The implication was that the judge thing would go badly for him if his client didn’t cooperate,” the source said.
Records show that Trump’s Save America PAC has paid fees to Woodward and his partner, Stan Brand, who represent a number of witnesses in the special counsel investigations. Brand has said there is nothing inappropriate about that.
Even if Woodward’s allegations are true — the Justice Department is expected to dispute them — legal experts say it’s not clear they would have an impact on any possible prosecution of Trump, who announced his White House bid in November. But the allegation is consistent with a strategy by Trump’s legal team to raise questions about prosecutorial tactics.
On Truth Social, Trump alleged that the prosecutor sought to “bribe & intimidate” the lawyer by offering an “important judgeship” in the Biden administration” if his client “flips” on Trump. That does not match how the source described Woodward’s allegations.
The finger-pointing comes as special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into Trump appears to be nearing its end. Trump’s attorneys were told at a meeting with prosecutors at the Justice Department on Monday that included Smith that Trump is a target of the classified documents investigation, according to two sources briefed on the meeting.
People who've been informed that they're targets of criminal probes are often, but not always, indicted.
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump wrote, “No one has told me I’m being indicted, and I shouldn’t be because I’ve done NOTHING wrong."
Smith was appointed special counsel in November by Attorney General Merrick Garland in the documents investigation and another probe centered on the Jan. 6 riot. In the documents probe, Smith has been tasked with investigating the handling of sensitive documents that were taken from the Trump White House “as well as the possible obstruction of that investigation.”
