It's time for Justice Matters, with former Federal Prosecutor and MSNBC analyst Glenn Kirschner.

Three of Donald Trump's attorneys met with special counsel Jack Smith and his team as they decide whether to charge him in the classified documents probe.

Is it possible they're trying to plea bargain? Here's Glenn.

So friends, as we remain on Trump indictment watch, there was an important development today.

Donald Trump's criminal defense attorneys met with special counsel Jack Smith and his team to try to talk them out of inditing Donald Trump for his crimes.

Here is the new reporting from the Washington Post headline, Trump lawyers ask Justice Department not to charge Trump in classified documents case.

And that article begins, attorneys for Donald Trump went to the Justice Department on Monday morning to make their case that the government should not charge the former president in connection with his possession of classified documents after leaving office.

According to people familiar with the matter. Trump lawyers Lindsey Halligan, John Rally and James Trusty spent about two hours at the Justice Department and left without speaking to reporters.

They met with Justice Department personnel including special counsel Jack Smith and a senior career official but not Attorney General Merrick Garland or Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.

Said people familiar with the matter who, like others interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a closed door proceeding.

The Justice Department declined to comment.

While it's not uncommon in high profile cases for defense lawyers to get such a meeting with Justice Department officials toward the end of an investigation,

current and former officials say such presentations rarely change prosecutors' minds.

Two Trump advisors briefed on Monday's meeting said they continue to believe Smith will finalize a charging decision in the coming weeks.

The advisors said they are preparing for a potential indictment of the former president and the meeting did not change their expectations.

So the reporting about this meeting conjures up a number of questions.

Question number one, is this normal operating procedure? And the answer is sort of.

In large scale, white collar crime type cases, when the prosecutors are investigating overtly, in other words, out in the open.

They're subpoenaing lots of people. It's no secret that an investigation is being conducted. It's probably no secret who the target or targets of the investigation are.

So when it's an overt investigation out in the open, it's not at all unusual to invite in the defense attorneys who are representing the target of the investigation to make a presentation.

I'll talk more about what that presentation usually involves in a minute.

But let's contrast that to when prosecutors are running covert operations, covert investigations, including in the grand jury.

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