Federal prosecutors investigating Trump’s handling of classified documents are seeking testimony from Trump’s lawyer, M. Evan Corcoran.
Trump lawfully stored presidential records at Mar-a-Lago but Joe Biden sent his machine gun-toting thugs to raid the Florida residence last summer.
Recall, Corcoran recently appeared before a Washington DC federal grand jury and asserted attorney-client privilege on President Trump’s behalf.
Mr. Corcoran refused to answer questions so now the prosecutors are seeking to the turn the screws on him to compel testimony.
The team of prosecutors working for Special Counsel Jack Smith are investigating whether Trump ‘obstructed justice’ in refusing to comply with demands to return his presidential records following a subpoena that was issued last June.
The New York Times reported:
Federal prosecutors overseeing the investigation into former President Donald J. Trump’s handling of classified documents are seeking to pierce assertions of attorney-client privilege and compel one of his lawyers to answer more questions before a grand jury, according to two people familiar with the matter, adding an aggressive new dimension to the inquiry and underscoring the legal peril facing Mr. Trump.
The prosecutors have sought approval from a federal judge to invoke what is known as the crime-fraud exception, which allows them to work around attorney-client privilege when they have reason to believe that legal advice or legal services have been used in furthering a crime. The fact that prosecutors invoked the exception in a sealed motion to compel the testimony of the lawyer, M. Evan Corcoran, suggests that they believe Mr. Trump or his allies might have used Mr. Corcoran’s services in that way.
Among the questions that the Justice Department has been examining since last year is whether Mr. Trump or his associates obstructed justice in failing to comply with demands to return a trove of government material he took with him from the White House upon leaving office, including hundreds of documents with classified markings.
It remains unclear what questions Mr. Corcoran sought to avoid answering by asserting attorney-client privilege or what crime the Justice Department cited in invoking the crime-fraud exception in its motion to Judge Beryl A. Howell, the chief judge in the Washington federal courthouse, who oversees all grand jury matters.
But after his appearance in front of the grand jury, Mr. Corcoran received notice that the Justice Department was seeking to use the exception to break through his assertions of privilege. Judge Howell, who has consistently decided in the government’s favor on privilege issues surrounding Mr. Trump, will ultimately rule on the department’s request about Mr. Corcoran. She will be stepping down from the position of chief judge next month.
Click here to read the full report by the New York Times.
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