WASHINGTON – A prominent prosecutor from the Justice Department who was in charge of investigating former President Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents has stepped down. Jay Bratt, aged 65, previously led this inquiry conducted by special counsel Jack Smith regarding documents that Trump retained from the White House when he departed in January 2021.

In an automated response from his DOJ email, Bratt stated, “I have left the Department of Justice as of January 3, 2025.”

Peter Carr, a spokesperson for the Justice Department, confirmed to YSL News that Bratt retired after dedicating 34 years to the department.

For a while, many legal experts viewed the classified documents investigation as one of the most significant legal threats to the former president. Later, a judge appointed by Trump in Florida dismissed the case, and the Justice Department decided against appealing, following Trump’s reelection in November, due to a policy that discourages prosecuting sitting presidents.

A previous colleague of Bratt mentioned that senior officials at the Justice Department hosted a retirement gathering for him last Friday at the department’s headquarters. This individual, wishing to remain anonymous, remarked that Bratt’s choice to retire was partially influenced by the fact that the classified documents case he had been involved in for years no longer existed.

“Had the case been ongoing, would he have retired? Probably not,” said the former colleague, explaining Bratt’s decision. “But it’s gone now, he’s 65, and he feels ready to move on.”

In October, Trump expressed intentions to dismiss Smith “within two seconds” and in November, the Washington Post reported that Trump, citing two members of his transition team, planned to remove Smith’s entire team, “including career attorneys usually shielded from political influence.”

Michael Isikoff from SpyTalk was the first to report Bratt’s retirement, quoting three sources who claimed he was compelled to leave.

“There’s no denying that, similar to (FBI Director Christopher) Wray, he’s stepping down in anticipation of possible job cuts,” a former Justice official who attended the farewell gathering said to SpyTalk.

Bratt did not respond to inquiries for comments.

Trump has threatened to take actions against those who investigated his conduct during his tenure. He has put forth loyal supporters, Pam Bondi and Kash Patel, for leading the Justice Department and FBI, respectively.

On December 11, shortly after Patel’s nomination, Wray announced plans to resign at the end of President Joe Biden’s term this month. This decision came just two days following a significant Senate Republican’s call for his resignation, amid ongoing calls from Trump to replace him in the upcoming administration.

Bondi, a former Florida attorney general, represented Trump during his initial impeachment trial.

A veteran national security prosecutor

Bratt dedicated three decades to the Justice Department. He served at the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington D.C. before moving to the DOJ’s National Security Division. He focused on prosecuting export violations, targeting Iranian and Chinese traffickers attempting to procure nuclear weapons technology and components.

In October 2018, he was appointed as chief of the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, overseeing highly sensitive espionage cases.

In 2022, Bratt became a focal point for criticism from Trump and his supporters due to his involvement in the FBI raid on Trump’s Palm Beach estate, Mar-a-Lago, which resulted in the confiscation of classified documents that Trump had not returned.

Bratt attempted to engage with Trump’s legal team to persuade Trump to return the documents and circumvent an FBI search. When Trump refused, the FBI sought and obtained a judicial order to carry out the search based on probable cause that evidence of a crime was present.

Trump made provocative claims regarding what he termed the FBI “raid,” asserting it was driven by a political agenda. Last May, Smith requested a judge to restrict Trump’s ‘false and inflammatory’ statements about the FBI’s search.

Stanley Woodward, an attorney for one of Trump’s co-defendants, alleged that Bratt threatened him in 2023, sparking an intense legal rebuttal from Smith, who called the claims “implausible, if not ludicrous.” Trump later appointed Woodward as a senior advisor in his next administration.

Despite Trump’s assertions that he had an ongoing order that automatically declassified any documents he took from the Oval Office to his private residence, the Justice Department ultimately charged him in relation to the case.

Authorities discovered approximately 100 classified documents during the search, which served as evidence against Trump and some associates. Trump was also charged with obstructing government efforts to retrieve those documents.

In July, the federal judge in Florida overseeing the classified documents case dismissed it, siding with defense lawyers who contended that special counsel Smith was unlawfully appointed by the Justice Department.

Smith, who also charged Trump for attempting to overturn the 2020 election in relation to the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack, appealed the judge’s ruling.

However, three weeks after last year’s election, Smith effectively concluded the classified documents investigation by abandoning his appeal against the dismissal of those charges. Additionally, another judge, upon Smith’s request, dismissed the charges relating to Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

‘You can’t hide’ – Ongoing threats against Bratt

Bratt’s retirement does not eliminate the potential risks he may face. House Republicans continue to scrutinize all inquiries into Trump and have targeted Bratt in their investigations.

On Monday, a close associate of Trump, who was previously in the running for high-ranking positions in the Justice Department during the new administration, made a threatening statement to Bratt on X, formerly known as Twitter, regarding what he labeled the “unlawful raid on Mar-a-Lago.”

“You may try to escape, Jay Bratt. But you will not be able to conceal yourself,” declared Mike Davis, who was the former chief counsel for nominations on the Senate Judiciary Committee and currently heads the Article III Project, a conservative legal advocacy organization.