By Aaron Miller-
Federal prosecutors examining Donald Trump’s unauthorized retention of highly sensitive government documents at his Mar-a-Lago property have granted immunity top adviser Kash Patel to testify against the former U.S president.
The immunity, which exempts witnesses from prosecution for their statements or information derived from their statements – takes effect on 2 November.
Prosecutors only grant immunity to witnesses as a last resort, after receiving internal approval at the highest levels of the justice department.
The justice department has also pressured Trump’s valet, Walt Nauta, to sit for an additional interview to answer questions about how Trump instructed him to remove boxes from a storage room at Mar-a-Lago where documents marked classified were stashed, one of the sources said.
The justice department’s interest with Patel is connected to claims that the documents found at Mar-a-Lago were declassified, how the documents came to end up at the property, and how Trump’s aides and lawyers responded to requests for their return, the sources said.
Prosecutors hope to demonstrate that documents seized by the FBI in August were not declassified in order to build an obstruction case, contending that Trump used the claims as an excuse for why he did not return records that had been subpoenaed.
In the obstruction investigation examining Trump by the former special counsel Robert Mueller, prosecutors concluded that the former president’s false statements about his campaign’s ties to Russia could only be considered criminal if he made them to Congress or the FBI.
Trump has re-iterated claims in recent weeks that all of the documents in his possession were declassified, while his office has said Trump issued a standing order that records taken to the White House residence were automatically declassified.
Trump also claimed to Fox News host Sean Hannity that presidents had the authority to declassify documents by the power of thought.
“Different people say different things but as I understand it, if you’re the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying it’s declassified, even by thinking about it,” Trump told Hannity.
The justice department’s willingness to grant use immunity to Patel underscores how important they consider his testimony as prosecutors continue to collect evidence against Trump through his current and former aides.