Former President Donald Trump’s head lawyer was ordered to testify Wednesday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit concerning the special counsel’s investigation into Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents.
A three-judge panel overruled an appeal by Trump’s lawyers of a motion telling Evan Corcoran “to comply with the district court’s March 17, 2023, order to produce documents.”
JUDGE ORDERS TRUMP LAWYER TO HAND OVER DOCUMENTS AND TESTIFY IN CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS INVESTIGATION
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled Friday that special counsel Jack Smith’s office had made a “prima facie showing that the former president had committed criminal violations,” allowing for the disregarding of attorney-client privilege.
Corcoran will now be made to testify about six subjects for which he had previously claimed attorney-client privilege.
The six subjects were revealed to ABC News by an inside source.
Here are the six topics that the special counsel is requesting Corcoran to testify on.
1. Trump’s response to a May 11 subpoena
The sources said the special counsel wants to know whether Trump or anyone under him knew of the signed certification, drafted by Corcoran and signed by Trump attorney Christina Bobb, that was submitted to the Department of Justice. It was in response to a May 11 subpoena requesting all remaining classified documents in Trump’s possession. The response was found to be false, triggering the FBI raid at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in August.
2. Zeroing in on the subpoena response
The second line of inquiry is a follow-up on the first, and it asks if Trump was aware that the response specifically claimed his team had conducted a “diligent search” of Mar-a-Lago.
3. Details of Corcoran’s search
Investigators want Corcoran to give a step-by-step recollection of what steps he took to ensure that there were no more classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
4. Mar-a-Lago’s storage room
They also want to know why Corcoran believed that all the documents were located in the estate’s storage room — a line he had told investigators in June.
5. Who was involved in choosing Bobb as custodian of the documents?
The special counsel wants to know who was involved in choosing Bobb as the designated custodian of the documents Trump took with him after the end of his presidency. They also want to know about any communications Trump had with Bobb regarding her selection as custodian.
6. June 24 phone call
Investigators want to know what Corcoran discussed in a June 24 phone call with Trump. The same day, Trump received a second grand jury subpoena demanding security footage that would show boxes of documents going in and out of Mar-a-Lago’s storage. The former president’s team hadn’t allowed authorities access to the tapes during their June visit. The conversation was cast by prosecutors as furthering “a different stage” of Trump’s “ongoing scheme”
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Trump’s team has fervently denied the basis of the special counsel’s case against Trump, accusing it of weaponizing the justice system against him.
“There is no factual or legal basis or substance to any case against President Trump,” a Trump spokesperson told ABC News. “The deranged Democrats and their comrades in the mainstream media are corrupting the legal process and weaponizing the justice system in order to manipulate public opinion, because they are clearly losing the political battle. The real story here is that prosecutors only attack lawyers when they have no case whatsoever.”
