Former President Donald J. Trump has launched a preemptive strike against the final stages of the investigation into his handling of classified documents. Trump has taken to his Truth Social platform to delegitimize the inquiry, accusing a top federal prosecutor of seeking to bribe and intimidate a witness in the case. These attacks follow a familiar pattern used by Trump, reflecting his efforts to undermine inquiries and investigators. Trump’s legal team has been collecting allegations of potential misconduct by prosecutors in the case and plans to include these complaints in a motion to dismiss should an indictment be filed. Trump’s pattern of attempting to undermine those investigating him dates back to his time as a New York real estate developer and extends to the investigations into his for-profit university and campaign possible collusion with Russian officials. Trump’s allies have also followed his lead in attacking investigators close to him, with Rudolph W. Giuliani attacking the FBI after its agents searched Michael Cohen’s office for evidence of campaign finance violations.
