In the ongoing federal criminal investigation led by Special Counsel Jack Smith into the handling of classified documents from Donald Trump’s time in office that were eventually found at Mar-a-Lago, prosecutors have obtained dozens of pages of notes originating with Evan Corcoran, according to reports. Corcoran is a Trump lawyer.
Previously, Corcoran was under expectation to provide new information to prosecutors after a federal judge got behind the invocation of the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege, which entailed dismissing routine concerns of confidentiality for an attorney’s clients because of the suspicion of criminal activity. It generally appears that any such suspicions trace to Trump himself rather than Corcoran or another member of the former president’s legal team, as Judge Beryl Howell, who considered the exception possibility, found there was sufficient evidence to suggest Trump intentionally misled his legal team (and intentionally harbored classified docs outside of what in reality were the legal demands for their handling).
In what were apparently the some 50 pages of notes from Corcoran that prosecutors obtained, it’s evidently made known that Corcoran informed Trump that the former president couldn’t legally continue harboring classified documents, making any such further action from Trump seemingly straightforwardly willful in any violation of the law. These notes also indicate that Trump aide Walt Nauta was aware of the contours of a search Corcoran was doing for classified docs still at Trump’s southern Florida property Mar-a-Lago before Justice Department personnel showed up in the middle of last year to take possession of what later revelations confirmed wasn’t everything covered by a subpoena that preceded the interaction.
Some of these details are included in a new article from The Guardian that claims Corcoran informed associates of his that he faced pushback at the prospect of him searching an office for Trump at Mar-a-Lago when conducting that examination of his, though Trump’s team obviously consistently denies pretty much everything (when Trump isn’t taking proud ownership of having harbored secrets).
