The judge urged the DOJ and Trump's team to resolve the dispute themselves.
A federal judge in Washington declined to hold former President Donald Trump or his legal team in contempt of court following a court hearing Friday as the Justice Department had requested, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The judge instead urged the Justice Department and Trump's legal team to resolve the dispute themselves, the sources said.
The DOJ had urged the judge to hold Trump's team in contempt over failure to fully comply with a May subpoena for documents with classified markings that was directed to Trump's custodian of records -- a person the Trump legal team has not identified.
The proceedings were under seal and not public.
"The President and his counsel will continue to be transparent and cooperative, even in the face of the highly weaponized and corrupt witch-hunt from the Department of 'Justice,'" Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement.
An aerial view shows President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estatein Palm Beach, Fla., Aug. 10, 2022. Steve Helber/AP
"If the Department of 'Justice' can go after President Trump, they will surely come after any American who they disagree with," Cheung added. "President Trump is the only one who stands in the way of the un-American weaponization of law enforcement."
The DOJ's urging was part of court proceedings in Washington in which DOJ and Trump lawyers have battled for weeks over compliance with grand jury subpoenas, sources have told ABC News. The Trump team has also not wanted to identify an official custodian of records to attest that all records have been handed over.
danceswithporn on December 9th, 2022 at 22:43 UTC »
I don't get this argument. Justice Department should absolutely pursue everyone who keeps caches of classified documents in their desk drawer, personal safe, and pool shed.
econoquist on December 9th, 2022 at 22:12 UTC »
So for six months the Trump team has been stonewalling complying with all aspects of the subpoena, and the Judge thinks that the DOJ should keep "working it out?" Yeah, right.
gfh110 on December 9th, 2022 at 22:11 UTC »
I flipped the order of these two paragraphs so it reads a little cleaner:
So...... HOW exactly should they "resolve the dispute themselves?" The dispute is that the DOJ has been asking Trump's legal team for something that they are just flat-out refusing to provide. Am I missing something?