Judge orders Trump’s attorney to turn over notes and transcripts of classified documents

A federal appeals court in DC ruled Wednesday that Trump attorney Evan Corcoran must turn over documents to Justice Department prosecutors investigating classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago.

Corcoran authored a statement to the Justice Department last year, alleging that a “careful search” for classified documents was being conducted at the former president’s Florida residence in response to a subpoena.

Months later, however, FBI agents searched Trump’s home with an arrest warrant and found about 100 other documents with classified markings.

The three-judge panel last week upheld a ruling by District Court Judge Beryl Howell that Corcoran must produce notes and transcripts to Special Counsel Jack Smith.

Donald Trump’s campaign is pushing against a report based on a sealed letter from a judge about possible criminal violations in talks shielded by Trump’s attorney Evan Corcoran. A Court of Appeals panel on Wednesday upheld a lower court’s decision that Corcoran must provide documents and information requested by Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office

The ruling ended a temporary stay of the order and ordered the unidentified parties to comply with the sealed order.

The legal details appear to correlate to a behind-closed-doors dispute before a lower court judge over whether M. Evan Corcoran could be compelled to produce documents or testify before a grand jury in the Justice Department’s special attorney’s investigation into whether Trump leaked top-secret information on the 31-a-Lago.

Last Friday, the outgoing US District Court Chief Justice, Beryl Howell, directed Corcoran to answer additional questions before the grand jury. He had appeared before the Mar-A-Lago federal grand jury weeks earlier, but had invoked attorney-client privilege to avoid answering certain questions.

A Trump spokeswoman blasted a news report as “fake news” and “ILLEGAL LEAKED” after leaking portions of a letter from Howell to Special Counsel Jack Smith about the investigation into the former president’s handling of government documents set to be turned over to the National Archives had been .

Although attorney-client privilege protects attorneys from being forced to share details of their conversations with clients, this legal protection can be removed in a case of “crime fraud.” Namely, if the services of a lawyer have been used by a client to further a criminal offence, there is no legal protection for the client.

The three judges who issued the decision included Cornelia Pillard, a commissioner for former President Barack Obama, and J. Michelle Childs and Florence Pan, both commissioners for President Joe Biden.

Corcoran is scheduled to testify before a grand jury on Friday, separate from the grand jury in Manhattan in NYC, reports CNN.

Former President Donald Trump’s team blasted developments in federal court in a week when Trump faces possible indictment in Manhattan in another case

Jack Smith was appointed special prosecutor by the Justice Department in November, tasked with investigating Trump’s handling of classified documents and his actions around January 6

US District Judge Beryl A. Howell ruled that Corcoran should testify

More than 100 documents marked as “classified” were subsequently identified in an FBI search in Mar-a-Lago after a diligent search was certified