Sources told Bloomberg News reporter Chris Strohm that the Justice Department is unlikely to make any movements against Donald Trump ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
It has been three weeks since the Justice Department was issued a search warrant on Trump's resort, Mar-a-Lago, to retrieve classified government documents. Tuesday evening, the DOJ filed documents that went so far as to show photos of the classified folders strewn about on the floor of Trump's personal office.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has been sending out letters reinforcing the importance of DOJ staff being non-political and that if there are any legal actions taken against a politician they must go through Garland himself. The Justice Department has a policy that no investigations would be publicly discussed 60 days prior to an election, which is Sept. 10, 2022. The rule came after former FBI director James Comey announced a probe into Hillary Clinton ahead of the 2016 election, which some credit as a factor in her loss.
There's no policy that precludes the DOJ from taking steps in the investigations behind closed doors. Trump has shown that he will release information publicly and it's unclear whether he would be honest about what, if anything, is happening. If something like that happened, and Trump lied about what occurred with the FBI or DOJ it's unknown whether they would step forward to correct the record or if that would violate the "60-day" rule.
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“While he isn’t on the ballot in November, Trump has endorsed candidates who are, and he leads a fierce political movement. He recently demanded that he be reinstated as president or a new election held. Trump also might declare he’s running for president prior to November," the report explained.
It's unclear if the DOJ will have what is needed to announce any kind of charges of indictments of Trump and/or his allies by November.
Charges against Trump being announced would likely be seen as a political ploy, but Trump is already claiming that the search warrant was politically motivated to impact the 2022 and 2024 elections. He hasn't declared whether or not he's running in 2024, however.
