Trump attorney Christina Bobb, who is also sometimes a fixture in right-wing media, has hired her own lawyer and expressed willingness to cooperate with Justice Department prosecutors in the context of the wide-ranging department investigation into the handling of records marked classified from the Trump administration, per newly available details.
Bobb was also on staff at the Department of Homeland Security during the Trump era. She was drawn into the documents scandal because she signed a statement provided for the Justice Department in June indicating all materials marked classified from Trump’s southern Florida property Mar-a-Lago were getting returned to investigators. Her statement to that effect, which the subsequent FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago in August showed was false, followed a subpoena from the Justice Department demanding a wide range of classified materials that potentially remained at the property. Now, Bobb’s new lawyer is ex-prosecutor John Lauro, who’s based in southern Florida. Bobb “has made it known to Trump allies that she is willing to cooperate and be interviewed by the Justice Department,” as The Washington Post summarized revelations from sources.
Bobb declined to comment when asked about the issue. Facing a specific question regarding if she was in negotiations for an interview with the department, which might cover questions like the original source for claims in her false statement, Bobb said, “I’m sorry, I’m not allowed to talk about it.” Notably, Bobb was also involved in the scheme to assemble essentially faked electoral votes for Trump in states around the country where Biden was victorious, although her legal vulnerabilities might be less serious in that matter. She was, however, evidently a participant in a December 2020 call focusing on logistics for the people signing on as Trump electors despite Donald losing in their states; she took notes. An email documenting her involvement was already “turned over to federal investigators exploring the fake-elector scheme,” according to the Post.
Bobb isn’t the only Trump attorney who is facing potential legal vulnerabilities in connection to the documents case. Evan Corcoran, a past U.S. prosecutor, was also involved in initial claims to the Justice Department that the Trump team was fully complying with the subpoena issued for various materials marked classified. Specifically, an earlier court filing from the Justice Department outlined how Corcoran insisted to department officials that a diligent search for items covered by the subpoena was conducted and that, regarding the contours of that search for records, only a particular storage area at Mar-a-Lago was housing federal records. The latter was proven false in the FBI raid, when agents found highly sensitive materials in a personal office for Trump on the premises. According to the Post, “colleagues” have also pushed Corcoran to assemble his own legal defense, although he is so far declining.
In returning to right-wing media and staying out of filings, Bobb, meanwhile, is distancing herself from the Trump team — and now insisting she wasn’t “on the legal team handling this case,” meaning the dispute over documents. “I think people were a little bit confused,” Bobb recently claimed. “I am on President Trump’s legal team. I do work for him on election issues. I was never on the legal team handling this case, just to be clear on that. Which is why I came in as the custodian of records — because I wasn’t on that team.” Her claims about the outside nature of her involvement in the documents dispute could make it easier for the department to compel her testimony, the Post notes. Presumably, it could help with getting around privilege claims.
