A member of President Joe Biden’s counsel’s office met with a top member of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team nine weeks before he indicted former President Donald Trump in the classified document case, White House visitor logs show.
The meeting between Caroline Saba, deputy chief of staff for the White House counsel’s office, and Jay Bratt, a top aide to special counsel Jack Smith, raises questions about whether the White House politically influenced or interfered in the DOJ’s case against Trump, Joe Biden’s political rival.
The 10:00 a.m. meeting on March 31, 2023, between Saba and Bratt included an FBI agent from the Washington field office, Danielle Ray, visitor logs show, the New York Post reported.
Smith indicted Trump nine weeks later on June 8, 2023.
The logs do not disclose what Saba and Bratt discussed at the meetings.
The meeting “raises obvious concerns about visits to the White House after [Bratt] began his work with the special counsel,” George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley told the Post.
“There is no reason why the Justice Department should not be able to confirm whether this meeting was related to the ongoing investigation or concerns some other matter,” he added.
About two months after the meeting, Saba left her position at the White House to attend law school, according to the Post.
Bratt graduated from Harvard Law School and has worked for the DOJ since 2015. He is currently a chief at Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, National Security Division of the DOJ.
In June 2022, Bratt inspected Mar-a-Lago’s storage facilities and personally interacted with Trump. The Washington Post reported he strongly advocated for the FBI’s raid of Trump residence.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
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