Courts order Trump lawyer to hand over records showing plausible classified documents crimes


A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., on Thursday directed a lawyer for former President Donald Trump to provide documents to prosecutors investigating Trump's retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. The judges upheld an order issued Friday by U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in which she agreed with prosecutors that the documents in question offered "prima facie" evidence "that the former president committed criminal violations," ABC News and The New York Times report.
Howell's order opened the way for Special Counsel Jack Smith's office to use the "crime-fraud" exception to attorney-client secrecy and compel Trump lawyer M. Evan Corcoran to hand over notes, transcripts of recordings, and invoices related to his work for Trump on the documents case, The Washington Post reports, citing people familiar with the matter. Those documents show his services may have been used to obstruct the government's attempts to recover highly classified documents, the Post adds.
Corcocan is also expected to testify before the grand jury again as soon as Friday, ABC News reports. In his previous testimony, earlier this year, Corcocan had invoked attorney-client privilege to rule out discussing certain topics.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
After Trump's team turned over boxes of improperly retained documents to the National Archives in January 2022, including classified documents, the Justice Department issued a subpoena in May, demanding any other classified documents in Trump's possession. In early June, Trump's team gave Justice Department officials another 30 or so classified documents — and a signed certification that a "diligent search" of Mar-a-Lago showed Trump had no more classified files.
Trump attorney Christina Bobb told investigators last fall — after the FBI found dozens of additional classified and top secret documents at Mar-a-Lago in an Aug. 8 search — that Corcoran had drafted the false statement and asked her to sign it. Smith's team wants to know what steps Corcoran took to determine there were no more classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, what Trump knew about the sworn certification, and what he and Trump discussed in a June 24 phone call about Justice Department demands for surveillance footage from Mar-a-Lago, ABC News reports.
The appellate court ruling was a significant victory for the Justice Department, but it "left open a lingering threat to the government's case," allowing Trump's appeal of Howell's ruling to proceed even as prosecutors gain access to Corcoran's information, the Times reports. "That move opened the possibility that if the appeals court — or the Supreme Court — ultimately ruled that the government's arguments about the crime-fraud exception were wrong, prosecutors would be barred from using the information," which could potentially "prove fatally damaging" to the government's case. Briefs for the appeal are due in May.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Democrats’ strategy to woo voters for 2026: religion
The Explainer Politicians like Rob Sand and James Talarico have made a name for themselves pushing their faith
-
Pregnancy in America
Feature Why is it getting riskier to give birth in the U.S.?
-
The potential warning sign of an auto lender’s bankruptcy
In the Spotlight Tricolor collapse an ‘extreme example’ of economy’s challenges
-
Venezuela: Was Trump’s air strike legal?
Feature A Trump-ordered airstrike targeted a speedboat off the coast of Venezuela, killing all 11 passengers on board
-
3 killed in Trump’s second Venezuelan boat strike
Speed Read Legal experts said Trump had no authority to order extrajudicial executions of noncombatants
-
Is Kash Patel’s fate sealed after Kirk shooting missteps?
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION The FBI’s bungled response in the immediate aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting has director Kash Patel in the hot seat
-
Russian drone tests Romania as Trump spins
Speed Read Trump is ‘resisting congressional plans to impose newer and tougher penalties on Russia’s energy sector’
-
Trump renews push to fire Cook before Fed meeting
Speed Read The push to remove Cook has ‘quickly become the defining battle in Trump’s effort to take control of the Fed’
-
Will Donald Trump’s second state visit be a diplomatic disaster?
Today's Big Question Charlie Kirk shooting, Saturday’s far-right rally and continued Jeffrey Epstein fallout ramps-up risks of already fraught trip
-
Air strikes in the Caribbean: Trump’s murky narco-war
Talking Point Drug cartels ‘don’t follow Marquess of Queensberry Rules’, but US military air strikes on speedboats rely on strained interpretation of ‘invasion’
-
Calls for both calm and consequences follow Kirk killing
TALKING POINTS The suspected assassination of far-right activist Charlie Kirk has some public figures pleading for restraint, while others agitate for violent reprisals