(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



Prosecutors are trying to make a Trump lawyer talk, and their reason for it sounds bad for Trump [1]

['Daily Kos Staff', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']

Date: 2023-02-15  

Corcoran was the attorney who turned over 30 classified documents to the FBI in June and then reportedly drafted the statement claiming that a “diligent search” of Mar-a-Lago had been conducted and that no more classified documents had been found. Christina Bobb, another of Trump’s lawyers, signed that statement, but she has reportedly insisted that Corcoran drafted it and that she worked to add caveats. Weeks later, the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago and found more than 100 classified documents, many of which definitely would have been found if anything approaching a “diligent search” had been conducted.

The special counsel’s office isn’t making public exactly what questions it wants to ask Corcoran, but given that history, it’s a safe bet the questions center around Trump’s obstruction of efforts to get back the classified documents.

Prosecutors in the special counsel’s investigation have to convince Judge Beryl Howell that the crime-fraud exception applies. A critical part of that involves having evidence that, at the time Corcoran advised Trump on the matter, Trump wasn’t done committing crimes or fraud. According to a 1989 Supreme Court decision:

The attorney-client privilege must necessarily protect the confidences of wrongdoers, but the reason for that protection–the centrality of open client and attorney communication to the proper functioning of our adversary system of justice–ceases to operate at a certain point, namely, where the desired advice refers not to prior wrongdoing, but to future wrongdoing. It is the purpose of the crime-fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege to assure that the “seal of secrecy” between lawyer and client does not extend to communications made for the purpose of getting advice for the commission of a fraud or crime.

But given that every day Trump didn’t return the documents, he was defying a subpoena and holding onto and improperly storing classified material the government was actively seeking from him, the “future wrongdoing” part should not be difficult to show. Howell, The New York Times notes, “has consistently decided in the government’s favor on privilege issues surrounding Mr. Trump.”

In addition to the classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, the special counsel is investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 elections. Mike Pence is preparing to fight a subpoena calling on him to testify about his conversations with Trump relating to that. Trump’s legal jeopardy appears real, and while there’s no chance of actual justice—in the sense of any kind of a fair outcome in which Trump gets what he deserves—there remains at least some hope of him facing some kind of consequences.

RELATED STORIES:

Pence 'feels duty-bound' to challenge special counsel's subpoena

Todd confronts Jordan with the key fact about Trump's document stash: 'He defied a subpoena'

How can you tell when a poll is actually high quality? Natalie Jackson, research director at PRRI, joins us on this week's episode of The Downballot to discuss that and more. Jackson tells us the indicators she looks for to determine whether a survey is worth taking seriously, what she thinks the future of polling aggregation ought to look like, and why white evangelical Christians are the real outliers when it comes to religious groups' views on abortion.

Co-hosts David Nir and David Beard also break down Democrats' big special election victories in Pennsylvania; new efforts by progressives to pick their preferred GOP opponents in two key Wisconsin races; the first true retirement from the House this cycle; and a proposal to increase the size of the House, which has been capped at 435 members for more than a century.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/15/2153125/-Prosecutors-are-trying-to-make-a-Trump-lawyer-talk-and-their-reason-for-it-sounds-bad-for-Trump

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/