Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s political action committee (PAC) reportedly paid money to some witnesses involved in the Justice Department’s investigation into whether the former president illegally withheld confidential state documents after leaving the presidency, ‘The Washington Post’ has reported.
According to some of the witnesses have told anonymously to the newspaper – including people who have participated in both the defense and the prosecution of the case against Trump – the PAC would have paid the fees to participants in the investigation.
Specifically, the political action committee of the former president would have paid 114,000 euros to the law firm Brand Woodward Law, which represents a witness who came out in defense of Trump and another who was critical of him.
While there is no legal impediment in the United States for third parties to pay legal fees to the lawyers of participants in a trial, it is a practice that could encourage witnesses not to cooperate.
«There is no impediment to third parties paying legal fees, as long as the client is informed. The lawyer’s ethical obligation is to the client,» has assured Stan Brand, the lead attorney at the firm Brand Woodward Law, a beneficiary of Trump’s payments.
Meanwhile, former Attorney General Jim Walden, consulted by ‘The Washington Post’, said that the payment agreement raises concerns about whether the reimbursement of legal fees can influence what witnesses say or do.
In this sense, he has pointed out that if Justice Department officials have concerns about the ethics of the participants in the case, they could ask a judge to, at the very least, ask the clients if they are sure that their interests are being protected.
«It appears that Trump’s PAC is paying for the silence of these witnesses, to take the Fifth or for favorable testimony,» Walden added.
The U.S. Justice Department is investigating Trump’s possession of hundreds of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago Florida residence once he left office.
Some of the documents recovered in June by the FBI in a search approved by the country’s judiciary contained highly classified information, including reports on a foreign country’s nuclear capabilities, intelligence activity in China and Iran’s missile system.
