Trump attorney to testify Friday in MaraLago classified documents investigation after losing appeal

[pnwmom]

Source: CNN


Former President Donald Trump’s defense attorney Evan Corcoran is scheduled to testify Friday before the grand jury investigating classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago after a new order from a federal appeals court, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.

The US DC Circuit Court of Appeals said that Corcoran must provide additional testimony and turn over documents about the former president as part of the criminal investigation into possible mishandling of classified documents.

The source said Trump’s side is unlikely to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The announcement from a panel of three judges in the appeals court – less than a day after Trump sought to put Corcoran’s testimony on hold – adds momentum to the special counsel investigation as it seeks to secure evidence that could make or break a federal criminal case against Trump.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/22/politics/evan-corcoran-trump-lawyer-appeals-court/index.html

[Qutzupalotl]

1. Good, but I wonder why Trump is unlikely to appeal to USSC.

That seems out of character for Mr. Delay Tactics.

[PJMcK]

5. Has something similar been litigated previously?

If so, SCOTUS probably would decline to hear it.

Or maybe his lawyers are starting to wise up. BS-ing SCOTUS does advance one’s legal career.

[Raven123]

6. Read that the appeal request would go to Roberts. Doubt he would take it.

[live love laugh]

26. Why wouldn't Roberts take the case?

[Justice matters.]

35. Maybe because DoJ Smith's team has evidence of his crime...

Remember, prosecutors never ask questions they already know the answers to.

[Justice]

18. Totally agree. Why wouldn't he? Appeal would go to Roberts

Appeals from DC Court of Appeals first go to Justice Roberts.

Better than if they went to Alito, Kavanaugh, Thomas or Gorsuch

[Botany]

2. That means the DoJ and Mr. Smith who went to Washington now sees TFG as a threat to our ...

... National Security.

[AllaN01Bear]

17. djt bhas been a threat to national security when he violated

his oath of office and ordered his minions to storm capital hill on j6. this is eggscllent.

[Botany]

23. Or when he worked with Russia to rig our elections because Putin wanted him in power in order ....

.... to weaken the United States by causing massive social and political divisions or stealing and selling/trading
America's top secrets to Russia, China, & Saudi Arabia.

The man needs to be the US Super Max prison.

[erronis]

3. It's got to be tough to be a lawyer for a complete scoff-law.

Only reasons I can think of are:
1. The lawyer is desperate for cash (or fame/power)
2. The lawyer is really stupid.
3. The lawyer is part of the "family" and is a scoff-law
4. The lawyer has been blackmailed/extortioned/threatened
5. The lawyer actually believes in the "cause"

I'm guessing none of tfg's lawyers are mostly 2 (stupid) and 4 (threatened).

How can you make it through law school without some modicum of "critical thinking"? Or is this also relegated to one of those other "Critical" categories - too "woke" for RW beagles....

[housecat]

16. Whatever a lawyer takes from law school is packaged, formulaic, and often requires minimal critical

thinking. A lawyer becomes a good one or a bad one later.

[live love laugh]

27. #5 makes the most sense to me.

[getagrip_already]

4. The appearance before the grand jury isn't important....

He will just take the fifth.

The important part is his electronic evidence. Texts, emails, recordings, notes, etc.

That's what they want to squash the subpoenas.

They will probably appeal unless there won't be a stay during that appeal.

[pnwmom]

10. They can give him immunity and require him to testify. nt

[Grimelle]

7. Less than a day to rule?

There is no way that's good for TFG.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

9. Yep,

they must have seen what the DoJ and Jack Smith have and realized the urgency.
This is not good for Benedict Donald.

[rurallib]

8. So can Corcoran plead the 5th amendment?

I am so thoroughly confused as to what case is in what jurisdiction and what rules apply.

So can he plead the 5th?

And after I post that I see someone said he will be pleading the 5th, but his electronic evidence will be available and will nail him.

Forgive me for asking a question already answered.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

11. Yes, he can plead the 5th,

but, as pointed out up thread, what's important are the electronic devices, emails, notes, etc,
which he has been ordered to turn over to the investigators.

Benedict is truly screwed.

[rurallib]

12. Thanks! I hope Benedict is screwed!

[ShazzieB]

19. Oh, he's screwed all right.

THIS is how screwed he is:

[Novara]

13. Yeah, all that material is damning

I am drawing a blank but recently a similar case (was it Bannon?) was appealed to the SCOTUS, to no avail. It's possible they know it's a dud.

But it isn't the testimony as much as it's the evidence, including tapes, I read. Lordy, there are tapes.

[moonscape]

33. There are tapes? Really? I read any

must be turned over, but not that there actually were any.

[Novara]

38. supposedly there are audio files

[bluestarone]

14. How will we know if ALL documents are turned over?

[ShazzieB]

21. It's in the lawyer's interest to turn everything over.

The DOJ knows somebody lied to them. Either Trump lied to Corcoran and Corcoran simply passed on what his client said, OR Corcoran knowingly lied for Trump.

In order to clear himself, Corcoran needs to prove Trump lied to him. He's not going to hold back any evidence or refuse to answer any questions that could help him do that.

To put it another way, either Corcoran or Trump is going to end up under the bus. I don't see Corcoran throwng himself under there to protect Trump.

[moniss]

31. I expect

Corcoran to try to weasel as much as possible. I agree completely with your analysis of somebody lying to DOJ but they may very well be trying to lay the ground for a defense with things like "words were misunderstood/joking etc." I know that is a ludicrous defense at this stage of the matter but these people are ludicrous themselves and seem to have no level they won't go to.

I hope someone has been keeping a timeline track of all of the instances over the last several years when strange people were somehow just "wandering around" at Mar-uh-Ghastly while the Orange Ruski was playing Lord of the Manor. Then you also have the ones with apparent invitation to be there. What a mess!!

[Pepsidog]

15. What's over/under on "I don't recall" as an answer? Because we all forget conversations with the

POTUS where criminal activity is discussed. (Sarcasm)

[Evolve Dammit]

20. Think he'll get thrown out an upper-floor window? That's when we will know that the asset is real.

Even those in LaLa land.

[HardPort]

22. The fact that these courts have upheld the crime/fraud exception is HUGE! That is a high bar.

[republianmushroom]

24. good

lost again Donald.

[Jarqui]

25. This is a pretty significant development according to what I've seen so far

Link to tweet

emptywheel@emptywheel

That makes 4 judges who say it's more likely than not that Trump was criming last summer.

In very rapid succession.

Link to tweet

Andrew Weissmann 🌻@AWeissmann_
This cd be the final nail in the coffin for filing Trump obstruction of justice charges arising from the classified docs case.

Link to tweet

Andrew Weissmann 🌻@AWeissmann_
And, in any event, if client provides false facts to counsel to provide to govt, that is a crime (obstruction and false statement to govt), and crime-fraud exception applies. You can't commit a crime through a lawyer intermediary.

Link to tweet

Andrew Weissmann 🌻@AWeissmann_
MAL Obstruction case: Corcoran-Trump conversations about what to put in false June certification are not covered by the attorney client privilege, which only protects private comms seeking legal advice, NOT the facts client provided lawyer intended to be communicated to the govt.

Link to tweet

Andrew Weissmann 🌻@AWeissmann_
A slew of lawyers as potential key witnesses in criminal cases against Trump: Corcoran, Bobb, Cohen, Philbin, Herschmann, Cippolone, McGahn, etc.....and attorney-client privilege will not prevent this eventuality.

Haven't found the tweet. Someone said the speed at which these judges are making decisions indicates something serious - like they're very concerned about something. It may be about missing classified docs and a national security issue - which might be why Trump won't bother to appeal it any more - because he'd be ticking them off.

[Major Nikon]

28. It means that Trump can no longer hide behind his lawyer

It will almost certainly show a pattern of behavior of Trump to do illegal shit and blame it on his lawyers as he did with Michael Cohen. The problem he will have this time around is almost certainly Evan Corcoran would have learned from that experience and taken very good notes about the conversations he had with Trump. Don't be surprised if he has a paper trail running right up Trump's ass. The fact that attorney client privilege has been revoked probably means there's good evidence there was either a conspiracy between them to obstruct, or more likely there's proof Trump just lied to his lawyer like he lies to everyone else.

[moniss]

32. It makes me wonder

what kind of person Corcoran is to even have been willing to represent this piece of garbage.

[Justice matters.]

36. Lemme guess: A Republican?

Law n Order was just another Big Lie.
Money n Power was and is the truth behind it.

[Jarqui]

39. Agreed but even more remarkable to me

&ab_channel=CNN
at around 2:30 in the above CNN video, a Federal Judge of 17 years on the bench has never seen such a decision. And she goes on to say how remarkable it was to be appealed and decided within hours.
She said "there's no there there" for Trump.

Four judges are rapidly convinced Trump lied to his lawyer. That is a serious felony as it misleads/obstructs the DoJ.

And now, everything Trump said to that lawyer and the other one (Ms Little?), the prosecution gets to review. Corcoran recorded conversations with Trump. He has to produce those transcripts.
If these lawyers screw around and get caught, they'll lose their ability to practice law. So they can't.

This is as bad or worse than one's lawyers office getting raided (which has happened to Trump at least twice - Cohen and Giuliani).

We're still in the 3rd quarter but the game is over.
Four different judges rapidly weighed in on something with rare precedent and did so with a former POTUS.
Something rather extraordinary upset these judges. It may be the classified docs that are still missing.
Trump is screwed.

[moniss]

29. Whatever DOJ was able to

show Justice Howell had to be very, very strong given the statements in her rulings. It could be that we now have intelligence confirming a transfer/disclosure of classified information. I wonder if Patel is still in the country or if his passport has been nixed.

These latest court rulings bring a certain feel similar to when Nixon was losing the battles over keeping his documents/tapes from being turned over to the Watergate investigators. It gets closer to an end game with respect to the obfuscation and stall tactics. Speaking of long ago here is a little something from the era. The whole album is worth a big smile.

[moniss]

30. I also think that the recent subpoenas

to the staff at Mar-uh-Ghastly are important pieces of this desire for the production of materials from the lawyer. Smith may already have info about what some staff were told/knew or actions they were directed to take and the materials may give some corroboration about the knowing concealment/movement after they had Bobb sign the document saying all had been turned over.

It's good that they seem to be moving more quickly because we need to keep in mind that even if the Orange Ruski is indicted in all of the various cases his legal team(s) will likely try to stall off any actual trial well into 2024 and even if some do begin before then they will likely appeal ad infinitum every single ruling about every single thing possible. Just the venue/jurisdiction/admissibility of evidence challenges will drag it on for awhile. Just imagine how long they will drag it out using a phony excuse of having a desire to have "confidential" discussions about possible plea agreements etc. The case of E Jean C will maybe get decided sooner but I expect an attempt will be made to continue to drag that out as well.

[MayReasonRule]

34. Trump Has Two Options That I'm Aware Of...

1.) Request banc review of entire panel - full DC circuit
2.) Request emergency shadow docket review by Supreme Court - (John Roberts' special)

Roberts very well might bump it up to the entire court and stay the order while democracy crumbles. saving some back for topping on his vanilla ice-cream...

Time will tell. It always does.

May reason rule.

[Martin68]

37. I'm looking forward to this!