Lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump asked lawmakers on Wednesday to place the intelligence community in charge of assessing Mr. Trump’s handling of the classified documents found in his possession after leaving office, saying Congress should strip the Justice Department of authority to run the investigation. The 10-page letter to members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has little chance of leading to enactment of the legislation it seeks given that Democrats are in control of the Senate and the White House. But it seemed to serve a second function as well: It read like a trial brief of arguments that Mr. Trump could raise in his defense should the inquiry into his handling of classified materials being conducted by the special counsel Jack Smith result in criminal charges. from continuing to conduct ham-handed criminal investigations of matters that are inherently not criminal,” said the letter, written by Timothy C. Parlatore, one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers. The letter proposed that the Justice Department “should be ordered to stand down,” allowing the intelligence community to “conduct an appropriate investigation and provide a full report to this committee.”

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