Former President Donald Trump has said the Department of Justine has a “60-day rule” that prevents it from taking certain law enforcement actions against candidates in the run-up to a United States election.
If Trump’s statement were correct, it would have wide-ranging implications as he stares down two federal indictments: one in Washington, DC, for efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and another in Florida for allegedly hoarding classified documents.
Friday marks 60 days until the presidential election on November 5. So what are the facts behind the claim?
Trump invoked the “60-day rule” while responding to an updated indictment filed last month in the federal election case in Washington, DC.
“It is DOJ policy that the Department of Justice should not take any action that will influence an election within 60 days of that election – but they just have taken such action,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Others have since echoed that criticism. Last week, Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, questioned federal prosecutors in the Florida case about whether holding a trial before the election would violate the rule.
Legal experts, however, have rejected that position. And Jay Bratt, a federal prosecutor in the Florida case, told Cannon that, since Trump had already been charged, no rule or norm would be violated.
Trump was referring to an unwritten — and admittedly vague — guideline that Justice Department officials have adopted over the years.
A 2018 report from the Justice Department’s inspector general clearly states: “No Department policy contains a specific prohibition on overt investigative steps within a particular period before an election.”
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