Justice Department prosecutor Jay Bratt is being labeled “bratty” by legal analysts due to his recent court filing in the classified documents case involving former President Donald Trump. Legal experts Allison Gill and Andrew McCabe discussed the issue on the “Jack” podcast, shedding light on Bratt’s contentious interactions with Judge Aileen Cannon.
The clash arose last week when Bratt filed a request to adjust the bail conditions of Trump’s release, initially set after his arrest for allegedly retaining top-secret government documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort and obstructing efforts to retrieve them. Bratt argued for new restrictions after Trump spread conspiracy theories about the FBI allegedly being authorized to kill him, despite such authorizations being common in search warrants.
“We learned that Trump’s attorneys misquoted language the FBI uses on operations orders, which they must prepare before executing any search warrant,” explained McCabe. “Trump’s attorneys said that the FBI was authorized to use deadly force when necessary. When the ops order actually says, ‘only when necessary’ and ‘only when the lives of officers or other people are in danger.'”
Trump twisted this language to falsely claim that President Joe Biden was attempting to assassinate him. In response, the DOJ filed a request to adjust the bail conditions. However, Bratt bypassed a local rule requiring prosecutors to “meet and confer” with Trump’s team beforehand, leading Judge Cannon to deny the motion and reprimand Bratt for the procedural error.
This week, “Jay Bratt refiled his motion,” Gill explained. “But I still think there might be some problems with this. First, he filed the exact same motion to modify bail conditions. The only thing he changed was the date because he said something like ‘yesterday,’ and it was May 28th, which is no longer ‘yesterday.'”
Bratt also failed to include any declarations from FBI agents in the motion. “And he didn’t ask for an expedited briefing. He didn’t file for emergency relief again,” Gill continued. “And that move, just to refile the same thing again with your little meet and confer, at the end of it with your little meet and confer certificate, seemed like — it seemed bratty.”
Both hosts laughed at the double entendre. “Well, it’s definitely bratty because it’s coming from Jay Bratt,” McCabe quipped. “And, so, technically…” Gill concluded that while it wasn’t exactly unprofessional, it was a “dig” at the judge, akin to saying, “Fine. Here. Uggh.” The debate over Bratt’s tactics underscores the ongoing tension and complexity surrounding the high-profile case, as legal maneuvers and courtroom strategies continue to unfold in the public eye.