May 23 (Reuters) – Lawyers for Donald Trump on Tuesday asked to meet with U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland over the work of a special counsel handling two investigations into the former president.
“No president of the United States has ever, in the history of our country, been baselessly investigated in such an outrageous and illegal manner,” attorneys John Rowley and James Trusty wrote in a letter Trump posted on social media.
They requested a meeting with Garland “at your earliest convenience to discuss the ongoing injustice being perpetrated by your special counsel and his prosecutors.”
In November, Garland appointed special counsel Jack Smith to handle the two Trump investigations.
The first investigation examines attempts to intervene in the peaceful transfer of power following Trump’s November 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden.
The second looks at Trump’s storage of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after leaving office in January 2021 and whether he tried to obstruct the Justice Department’s investigation.
Trump’s lawyers did not specify in the letter which investigation they wanted to discuss.
The letter was not signed by Evan Corcoran, who has recused himself from the classified documents investigation after a judge forced him to testify before a grand jury about his discussions with Trump about the material. Corcoran is still working with Trump’s legal team on the second investigation.
A spokesman for the Justice Department and a spokesman for Smith declined to comment on the request by Trump’s lawyers for a meeting with Garland.
Reporting by Michelle Nichols and Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Robert Birsel
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