Ex-FBI staff in Mar-a-Lago case subpoenaed in Florida conspiracy probe
Former FBI employees who worked on the Trump classified-documents case have been subpoenaed to testify in a Florida grand jury probe, their lawyers say.
Lawyers for former FBI employees who took part in the criminal investigation into President Donald Trump's retention of classified documents have disclosed that their clients have been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury in a broad Florida-based conspiracy probe.
The subpoenas, issued this month, require the former employees to testify in Fort Pierce, Florida, where the Justice Department has centred a yearlong investigation built on an ill-defined theory of a "deep state" conspiracy to deprive Trump of his civil rights and keep him from power.
According to a court filing made on behalf of the witnesses, the Justice Department has been examining former government officials who looked into possible ties between Russia and Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. The new subpoenas indicate the inquiry also reaches the FBI's 2022 search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida for classified documents.
The filing was submitted for a group of current and former agents and analysts who participated in the Mar-a-Lago investigation. It states that the FBI approached them in July and August to request voluntary interviews, telling their attorneys that grand jury testimony would follow. The lawyers say the newly issued subpoenas cover a small group of witnesses who are due to testify next week and the week after, and that the Justice Department has raised the possibility of granting immunity but has not formally offered it.
The legal question now rests with U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, the Trump-appointed judge who dismissed the classified documents prosecution of Trump and who sits in the Fort Pierce courthouse where the conspiracy probe is based. In February, Cannon issued an order blocking the release of a report on the classified documents investigation prepared by special counsel Jack Smith, whose team brought dozens of felony charges in 2023 against the then-Republican candidate, and barring the release of information about the case to anyone outside the Justice Department.
The lawyers are asking Cannon to clarify whether that order prevents their clients from testifying before the grand jury, given that they will be questioned about the investigation. Without clarity, they say, the witnesses could be forced to choose between being held in contempt of the order if they testify, giving testimony that is not "full, unconstrained" if they comply with the order, or invoking their constitutional protection against self-incrimination.
"Specifically, Clients seek to confirm that they can freely discuss non-public information related to their work on the investigation with individuals outside the DOJ, including but not limited to the grand jury and Client's own counsel, without running afoul of the terms of the order," the lawyers wrote.
The Justice Department is pressing ahead with the investigation following the resignation this month of Joseph diGenova, a Trump ally who had been brought in to help lead the probe. The inquiry has drawn intense interest from right-wing commentators who have long alleged that former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against the Republican president.