Federal Judge Beryl Howell Turns Donald Trump’s Attorney Evan Corcoran’s Notes to DOJ

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On her last day as the highest judge in the District of Columbia on Friday afternoon—in her final act—Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell did more than give the Justice Department permission to question former President Donald Trump’s personal attorney. He actually took the unusual step of turning over the attorney’s notes to federal prosecutors, according to a person familiar with the arrangement.

In doing so, Howell may have planted the seeds for a future constitutional challenge. But in the immediate term, he gave Justice Department Special Prosecutor Jack Smith a parting gift: what he considered evidence of a crime involving the former president’s improper storage of classified documents after he left office.

M. Evan Corcoran, a former federal prosecutor, represented Trump in that classified documents scandal. And while Corcoran already has his hands full as Trump’s lawyer, the investigation now appears to have put Corcoran in legal jeopardy himself.

According to one source, Corcoran’s professional records of private communications with his client have been turned over to Judge Howell, who is conducting an “in camera review”—a carefully controlled screening of confidential records that normally occurs in judge’s chambers.

Judges who come to the conclusion that some legally protected and sensitive material must be turned over to an opposing side usually issue an order ordering one side to do so, along with a deadline. Doing so gives the losing side the ability to appeal to a higher court—and avoid irreparable damage that could forever taint a case, according to two lawyers not involved in the case who spoke to The Daily Beast but asked not to be identified.

But Howell appears to have skipped that careful but tedious approach—and simply handed Smith a batch of documents that could show Trump and one of his lawyers planning a crime.

Either way, Trump’s legal team is left without prosecution, and federal prosecutors have more evidence to bolster the next steps in their growing investigation.

“He took all legal relief out of their hands. If he orders them to do so, they can appeal on an emergency basis. He may have been worried by what he read in the documents. He may not have trusted them to follow an order,” said David Cross, an experienced federal litigator at the Washington firm Morrison & Foerster who was not involved in the Trump case.

A spokesman for the DOJ special counsel did not respond to a request for comment Friday night.

On Friday, as part of a sealed proceeding, Howell ordered Corcoran to provide additional testimony to the DOJ, CNN first reported Friday. He concluded that investigators could penetrate the standard blanket of attorney-client privilege because of something called the “criminal fraud exception.” Essentially, the judge found that any legal advice Corcoran gave Trump was used in furtherance of a crime.

But going back to his records, Howell’s alleged actions differed sharply from the more traditional approach taken by a federal judge in California who dealt with similar questions last year. In that case, the Jan. 6 Committee is trying to access documents protected by attorney-client privilege to explore how Trump used conservative legal scholar John Eastman in an attempt to stay in power after losing the election in 2020.

US District Court Judge David O. Carter concluded that “President Trump and Dr. Eastman more likely than not committed obstruction of an official proceeding… and conspired to defraud the United States. ” But when he ordered on June 7, 2022 that Eastman turn over the 159 documents to a congressional committee, he gave Eastman one day to comply.

Howell’s ruling Friday appears to be his last as chief judge of the high-profile D.C. court, home to many of the nation’s most important policy debates, national security investigations, and constitutional challenges.

He was replaced by James Boasberg, another federal judge who was also appointed by President Barack Obama.

Howell’s last-minute decision in the Trump case could mark a turning point in the special counsel’s investigation, as it has the potential to increase the investigation. But remarkably, the saga continues to play out behind closed doors. His orders in this case remain sealed, and the grand jury investigation continues in legally protected secrecy.

The total lack of transparency in this historic case—and the surprising ability of news reporters to still squeeze out details about secret proceedings—was the subject of much humor during his farewells last year. Friday, according to Politico, describing him as being “toasted and occasionally grilled.”

So while Trump’s legal skirmish in open court against the New York Attorney General allows the American public to see how the Trump Organization has ignored subpoenas and slowed down investigators, this effort by The Justice Department continues largely in the shadows—though the consequences may be far greater. seriously

Federal prosecutors are investigating criminal charges against the former president for inciting the Jan. 6 uprising, defrauding the country and its courts in bogus election fraud conspiracies, and the manner in which he refused to return classified documents kept at his South Florida oceanside estate of Mar-a-Lago long after leaving the White House.

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