A top Department of Justice (DOJ) counterintelligence official who worked on special counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents case against President-elect Donald Trump has left the agency, a spokesperson said on Monday.
A DOJ spokesperson confirmed that Jay Bratt, the DOJ official detailed to special counsel Jack Smith’s office, retired from the department on Jan. 3. No other details were provided, and Bratt hasn’t made a public statement on the matter.
However, he was involved in Smith’s classified documents case brought against Trump. The case accused the then-former president of illegally retaining tranches of sensitive materials after he left the White House in 2021 and of obstructing attempts by federal officials to retrieve them. Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges and said he engaged in no wrongdoing.
The investigation resulted in dozens of FBI agents executing a search warrant on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, in August 2022.
Bratt joined Smith’s office when the special counsel took over the investigation in 2023 and helped secure an indictment accusing Trump of the alleged crimes. However, in July 2024, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed all charges after finding that Smith was not properly appointed as special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland. Smith appealed the ruling.
Smith’s team ultimately dropped their bid against Trump after his November 2024 election victory, citing DOJ precedent regarding not prosecuting presidents. Around the same time, Smith’s team dropped Trump’s separate, election-related case, brought in a federal court in Washington.
Last week, federal prosecutors signaled they would still pursue charges against two Trump employees, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, accused of obstructing the investigation. Both have pleaded not guilty.
According to court documents, prosecutors denied any improper conduct and said Bratt raised Woodward’s application as a professional courtesy.
According to court papers filed in 2024, Bratt allegedly had “told Mr. Woodward he didn’t consider him to be a ‘Trump lawyer,’ and he further said he was aware that Mr. Woodward had been recommended to President Biden for an appointment to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.” He then allegedly told Woodward, “I wouldn’t want you to do anything to mess that up,” the papers state.
During a contentious court hearing on May 22, 2024, Woodward brought up those allegations against Bratt.
“I had been recommended for a judgeship. That’s beyond dispute,” Woodward said at the time in a federal courthouse in Florida. “There was a folder about defense counsel on the table.”
Federal prosecutor David Harbach sought to rebuff Woodward’s claims in that hearing, saying the attorney was engaging in “procedural gamesmanship” and that “his story of what happened at that meeting [with Bratt] is a fantasy.”
At one point in that encounter, Cannon told Harbach to “calm down” after he banged his hand on the lectern and insisted that what Woodward claimed “didn’t happen.”
The Epoch Times contacted the DOJ for additional comment Monday but received no reply by publication time.
