A top Trump lawyer has recused himself from the Mar-a-Lago documents case

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One of former president Donald Trump’s top lawyers in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case is no longer working on the matter after he appeared before a federal grand jury last month, according to people familiar with the move.

Evan Corcoran is still representing Trump in other cases, such as special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, according to these people, who spoke to condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information that they are not. authorized to disclose.

Prosecutors investigating Trump taking classified documents to his Mar-a-Lago Club after leaving office won a court battle that allowed them to question Corcoran when judges ruled not to he can use the attorney-client privilege to avoid disclosing information about his communications with Trump. Prosecutors cited an exception to the legal principle that lawyers must keep what their clients tell them confidential when there is evidence that a client used the lawyers’ legal services in furtherance of a crime.

The Justice Department is increasingly focused on Trump’s possible obstruction of the investigation into documents found at his Mar-a-Lago home, and whether Trump has taken steps to obstruct or direct others to obstruct the government’s efforts to collect all sensitive records.

Former Trump cabinet official Mike Pompeo on March 3 mildly criticized former president Donald Trump at the Conservative Political Action Conference. (Video: The Washington Post)

Trump and his legal team failed to comply with a subpoena in May demanding that he turn over all documents with classified markings. The Washington Post reported last week that Smith’s team had gathered new evidence pointing to potential obstruction by Trump, and that Smith was trying to determine whether there was enough evidence to ask a grand jury to indict him. for obstructing the investigation.

Corcoran played a key role in communicating with the Justice Department in response to the subpoena and testified to investigators in June that a diligent search had been conducted to collect classified documents. Corcoran was forced to answer questions about Trump and his legal teams’ response to the subpoena and about his communications with Trump about returning the documents, The Post previously reported.

Investigators questioned more than a dozen witnesses and obtained emails and texts about the time between receiving the subpoena in May and when FBI agents searched Mar-a-Lago in August and recovered more than 100 document still in Trump’s possession.

The legal team handling all matters involving the special counsel himself, James Trusty, John Rowley, Lindsey Halligan, and Evan Corcoran is intact and we continue to work closely with Evan as we do with the entire team to protect our client, Trump’s attorney Tim Parlatore said in a statement, without elaborating on the Corcorans’ role.

An attorney for the Corcorans declined to comment.

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung suggested that the people confirming the Corcoran denial were inaccurate but did not provide any details.

These unnamed sources have no idea what is actually going on and are peddling disinformation, Cheung said.

Grand jury proceedings are secret, so it was not immediately clear how useful the Corcorans’ testimony would be to Smith and his team. But legal ethics rules including those in Maryland and DC generally prevent lawyers from acting as trial advocates when they are likely to be important witnesses.

The rule is meant to avoid conflicts of interest between lawyer and client, as well as to avoid putting the other party and the judge at a disadvantage by confusing whether a lawyer is speaking on facts based on personal knowledge. or commenting on evidence given by others.

The Corcorans’ refusal may be temporary, as the witness advocate rule does not become mandatory until the case goes to trial, according to a person familiar with the matter.

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