The Justice Department (DOJ) has distanced itself from former special counsel Jack Smith, calling new claims that President Donald Trump showed a classified map to passengers on a private flight in 2022 nothing more than desperate overreach by prosecutors who want to go after a political rival.
The latest twist surfaced Wednesday, March 25, when Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, released a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi demanding answers about previously undisclosed records from Smith’s investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
Those records, turned over as part of a separate GOP-led congressional probe, include a January 2023 memo in which Smith’s team described evidence that Trump took classified materials aboard a plane from Florida to his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club on June 3, 2022.
Prosecutors wrote that they had “identified a classified map that we believe Trump may have shown to individuals on board” the aircraft.
Also Read: DOJ Drops Maxwell Transcripts and Epstein Files —300 Pages of Secrets Revealed
The memo added that Susie Wiles, then chief executive of Trump’s super PAC and now White House chief of staff, was aboard the flight and witnessed the event, according to the documents cited by Raskin.
A map of the plane’s seating was provided to Congress, though all passenger names were redacted.
Raskin also pointed to other claims in the memo: that Trump retained classified documents tied to his business interests, giving him a possible motive for keeping them, and that one record was so sensitive that only six people in the entire U.S. government had access to it.
Democrats on the committee dubbed the disclosures as evidence of serious national security lapses, with Raskin writing that the materials suggest Trump “may have sold out our national security to enrich himself.”
DOJ Speaks
The DOJ has since shed more light on the claim, alleging that Jack Smith’s findings were untrue and politically motivated.
“Jack Smith’s team was desperate to prosecute Biden’s top political opponent, so it is no surprise that his files contain salacious and untrue claims about President Trump,” DOJ said, as reported by Scott MacFarlane, Chief Washington Correspondent at Meidas Touch Network.
The statement stopped short of directly addressing the particular allegations about the flight or the map. It instead portrayed Smith’s entire effort as politically motivated, echoing long-standing complaints from Trump allies that the classified documents case was a partisan weapon.
Smith had charged Trump with 40 felony counts related to the willful retention of national defense information and obstruction of justice.
Trump and two aides, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, were accused of hoarding boxes of classified records at Mar-a-Lago, moving them to hide them from investigators, and directing others to provide false statements.
A previous indictment had already described a different incident in 2021 at Bedminster, where Trump allegedly showed an aide a classified map of a foreign military operation without security clearance and told them not to get too close.
Prosecutors said that Trump knew the information was secret but could have made it public while he was president.
The newly highlighted 2022 flight contributes another layer.
That same day, June 3, 2022, FBI agents and DOJ lawyers visited Mar-a-Lago to collect 38 classified documents, which were turned over in response to a grand jury subpoena.
Hours earlier, boxes had been loaded onto the plane carrying Trump north for the summer, according to earlier court filings.
Also Read: Trump’s Classified-Documents Indictment Does More than Allege Crimes
Raskin’s letter presses Bondi for complete responses by March 31 on several points: who else was on the flight, exactly who saw the map, what the map depicted, which business interests the retained documents concerned, and whether any Trump family members were exposed to the materials.
He offered to review any classified details in a secure facility if needed.
The disclosures came from a Republican-led inquiry dubbed “Arctic Frost,” which has examined earlier investigations into Trump.
Democrats now argue the records undermine efforts to bury Smith’s findings and raise fresh questions about why the case was dropped after Trump returned to the White House.
A judge had previously stopped the release of Volume II of Smith’s final report because it could have put Trump and his co-defendants in danger.
But pieces of the underlying evidence have now come to light through congressional channels, leading to more fights between Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Trump has always said he didn’t do anything wrong, saying he had the right to declassify documents and that the investigation was a “witch hunt.”
