Donald Trump adviser Kash Patel has been granted immunity to testify before a grand jury investigating the former president’s handling of documents.
Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered Patel, a former White House and Pentagon aide, to appear again before a federal grand jury after Patel made an initial appearance last month and repeatedly declined to give information, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, according to CNN. This led prosecutors to ask a federal judge to compel him to testify.
The grand jury appearance has not yet been scheduled, per the report. Patel could still be charged but only with information found outside of his testimony, the Wall Street Journal reported.
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Patel is one of the main figures claiming that Trump broadly declassified numerous documents, an assertion Trump has made but one his legal team has not in court filings.
“Trump declassified whole sets of materials in anticipation of leaving government that he thought the American public should have the right to read themselves,” Patel told Breitbart News last year. “I was there with President Trump when he said, ‘We are declassifying this information.’”
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Patel was appointed one of Trump’s representatives to the National Archives. A back-and-forth with the government since Trump left office escalated in August when the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago resort and seized documents, including roughly 100 marked as classified.
Government investigators are working to determine whether Trump committed a host of crimes, including those engaged with the destruction of government documents, mishandling of classified information, and obstruction. Trump has adamantly denied wrongdoing.
