Federal prosecutors reportedly are in possession of evidence Donald Trump was told that he could not keep any classified documents after he was subpoenaed for their return last year, as they examine whether the subsequent failure to fully comply with the subpoena was a deliberate act of obstruction by the former president.
The warning given to Trump by his lawyer Evan Corcoran could be important in the criminal investigation surrounding Trump’s handling of classified materials given it shows he knew about his subpoena obligations.
In April, Lancaster Courier reported that Evan Corcoran could become a “star witness” in the case against Trump concerning classified documents. Now, that seems to be coming to fruition.
The federal investigation led by special counsel Jack Smith has recently focused on why the subpoena was not compiled with. It is also zeroing in on whether Trump arranged for boxes of classified documents to be moved out of the storage room so he could illegally retain them.
Trump’s valet Walt Nauta is of particular interest, after he confessed that Trump told him to move boxes out of the storage room both before and after the subpoena. Some of the activity was captured on surveillance tapes, which the DOJ also has possession of.
The warning was one of several key events that Corcoran kept in about 50 pages of notes described to the Guardian by three people who have knowledge of their contents. Prosecutors have focused on these revelations as they seem to be in the late stages of deciding which, if any, charges will be brought against the former POTUS.
Corcoran’s notes show how Trump and Nauta had unusually specific and detailed knowledge of the botched subpoena response, including where the attorney planned to search and not search for classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, in addition to when Corcoran was actually doing his search.
Prosecutors were able to obtain the notes when they “pierced” the attorney-client privilege standard which allows such evidence when it is thought that a crime may have been committed within that privilege.
The notes described:
1) How Corcoran told Nauta about the subpoena before he started looking for classified documents because Corcoran needed him to unlock the storage room – prosecutors have taken as a sign that Nauta was closely involved at every or most every step of the search.
2) How Nauta had offered to help him search, which he declined and told Nauta he should stay outside.
3) That there were times when the storage room might have been left unattended and unguarded while the search for classified documents was happening.
Corcoran described Trump’s facial expressions and reactions during the meetings when they talked about the subpoena. This apparently “irritated” Trump when he learned about it later.
As more and more evidence mounts, it appears that charging Trump in some fashion is more and more inevitable.
