In a recently unsealed report, special counsel Jack Smith has forcefully rejected allegations made by Donald Trump’s lawyer, Stanley Woodward, who claimed to have been threatened by a Justice Department official during a meeting to discuss Trump’s former body man. Smith’s report describes Woodward’s claims as “implausible, if not ludicrous,” and provides evidence to contradict the lawyer’s assertions.
According to Woodward, Jay Bratt, the Justice Department’s chief of counterintelligence, threatened to contact the White House and attempt to scuttle Woodward’s nomination to D.C. Superior Court unless his client, Walt Nauta, agreed to cooperate with the prosecution. Smith, however, notes that such a threat would violate Department policy and that Woodward never raised any concerns about the meeting until after Trump filed a disclosure motion in June 2023.
Smith also included a snippet of Woodward’s complaint, filed under seal when the Guardian first reported its claims last June, which shows that Nauta’s defense attorney was angered by Bratt’s argument as to why his client should cooperate with the prosecution. Woodward wrote that Bratt “referenced his belief that one way or another Mr. Nauta would be giving up a lifestyle of private planes and private golf courses.”
Smith’s report further highlights that the conversation in question took place in August 2022, about nine months before Woodward raised any complaints about alleged prosecutorial misconduct. Smith writes that “Woodward—who had dealt with several prosecutors from the Special Counsel’s Office during that span—never raised any allegation, concern, or complaint about that meeting.”
An NBC report on Woodward’s claim in 2023 noted that it was “consistent with a strategy by Trump’s legal team to raise questions about prosecutorial tactics.” The report also states that Trump took to Truth Social to complain that prosecutors tried to “bribe & intimidate” Woodward by offering an “important judgeship” in the Biden administration if his client “flips” on Trump.
The special counsel’s report serves as a strong rebuttal to Woodward’s allegations and underscores the credibility of the Justice Department’s investigation into Trump and his associates.
