Trump scores court victory as federal judge declines Justice Dept. contempt charge

A U.S. District Court judge declined a Justice Department request on Friday to hold former President Donald Trump’s legal team or the former president in contempt of court for allegedly not turning over classified documents from his time in office, according to news reports. 

Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the former president’s lawyers and the Justice Department to resolve their conflict after an in-camera hearing that was closed to the public for more than an hour Friday afternoon, according to ABC News.

Federal prosecutors were seeking the contempt charge against the former president and his attorneys for purportedly failing to comply with a May subpoena that compelled Trump to return sensitive material to the U.S. government.

“The president and his counsel will continue to be transparent and cooperative, even in the face of the highly weaponized and corrupt witch-hunt from the Department of Justice,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a Friday statement. 

“If the Department of ‘Justice’ can go after President Trump, they will surely come after any American who they disagree with,” he asserted. “President Trump is the only one who stands in the way of the un-American weaponization of law enforcement.”

Lawyers for the former president say they have been making efforts to collect outstanding secret documents, according to reports. 

At least two documents labeled classified were located by Trump’s team while inventorying items in a West Palm Beach, Fla storage facility last month, according to reports earlier this week. Those papers returned to the FBI.

The main contention between the former president’s lawyers and Justice Department prosecutors is the legal team’s refusal to select a custodian of records to attest that all classified materials have been returned to the National Archives, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

But a key area of disagreement between the DOJ and lawyers for Trump continues to be the refusal by the former president’s legal team to designate a, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

The Justice Department is investigating whether the 45th president committed a legal violation by keeping top secret White House records after his term ended in January 2021.