The Department of Justice official who pushed for the armed raid on Mar-A-Lago, which ended up with documents that were available for the asking and a chance to riffle through Melania’s underwear drawer, has retired. Jay Bratt, a 30-plus-year veteran of the Department of Justice, has tendered his resignation, saying staying on “wasn’t worth it.” 

“They’re forcing him out. There isn’t any doubt that, like [FBI Director Chris] Wray, he’s leaving to get ahead of the axe,” said one former Justice official who attended a farewell party for Bratt at the Justice Department’s seventh floor media center on Friday.

According to the report, Bratt, a senior executive service member, expected to be fired by incoming Attorney General Pam Bondi, and he would face a long-running and expensive “wrongful dismissal” lawsuit to be allowed to retire a la Andrew McCabe.

According to books and reporting on the issue, the FBI did not want to conduct a SWAT-style raid with shoot-to-kill orders on Mar-a-Lago, but Bratt insisted; see .

After obtaining evidence that Trump employees at Mar-a-Lago may have been moving boxes that hadn’t been returned, Bratt later pushed for a warrant to search the president’s home—a move that was resisted by Steven D’Antuono, the top FBI agent overseeing the case, who viewed the Justice prosecutor as being overly “aggressive,” according toWhere Tyranny Begins: The Justice Department, the FBI and the War on Democracy, a book by veteran journalist David Rhode. But D’Antuono’s objections were overruled by senior FBI officials, resulting in the August 2022 FBI search of Mar-a-Lago that recovered another 102 documents with classified markings. The search enraged Trump and put both Bratt and FBI Director Wray in the cross-hairs of the former president and his lawyers.

BACKGROUND:

Bratt was also credibly accused of pressuring the attorney of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago valet into getting his client to testify against Trump in exchange for a federal judgeship.

In addition, Stanley Woodward, a lawyer representing Walt Nauta, a co-defendant in your classified documents case against President Trump, accused you of improperly pressuring him by implying that the Biden Administration would look more favorably on Mr. Woodward’s candidacy for a judgeship if his client cooperated with the Office of the Special Counsel.10 According to Mr. Woodward, you advised him that you “wouldn’t want [him] to do anything to mess that up,” in reference to Mr. Woodward’s judgeship application, and your desire to turn his client into a government cooperator.

Somehow, we’re all supposed to be concerned about the mass exodus of “seasoned government lawyers and FBI agents” who engaged in lawfare against President Trump and members of his 2017-2021 team. They could have learned a valuable life lesson by watching the HBO series The Wire before engaging in political warfare against the once and future president.

The more people who resign, the less drama will take place, and more slots can be filled with people who just want to do their jobs and have no interest in eliminating political figures or engaging in a soft coup against the White House.