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The criminal references of the special committee of the House of Representatives which were forwarded to the Department of Justice, urging the prosecution of donald trumpare “useless,” one of the former president’s lawyers told CNN on Saturday.
“The reference itself is practically useless,” Trump’s attorney, Tim Parlatore, said on “CNN Newsroom.” “The Department of Justice doesn’t have to follow it. There’s been existing research that we’ve been dealing with for quite some time. Really what this does, if anything, just politicizes the process.”
The House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol of the United States has released its long-awaited final report and recommends banning former President Donald Trump from holding office again and that the Department of Justice file criminal charges against Trump.
Parlatore was on CNN responding to unprecedented criminal references that the bipartisan select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol sent to the Justice Department earlier this week.
Committee members said that believed Trump was guilty of at least four federal crimes, including collusion and obstruction of a joint session of Congress.
“It’s political noise, but it has no effect, as of now, on our defense,” said Parlatore, who is representing Trump in the Justice Department’s investigations into the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol and possible mishandling of government documents in Mar-a-Lago.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing on both issues.
The two high-stakes investigations are now being overseen by special counsel Jack Smith, a veteran prosecutor tasked with deciding whether there is enough evidence that Trump broke the law and whether prosecution is appropriate.
The Mar-a-Lago investigation turns on whether Trump or his aides mishandled classified records and national security documents by moving them from the White House to his Florida resort and home.
Parlatore told CNN on Saturday that he was certain there were no more White House records with classification marks left at Mar-a-Lago: “Everything that was found has been turned over.”