WASHINGTON – Turning on his iPhone one day in 2022, lawyer M. Evan Corcoran recorded his reflections about a high-profile new job: representing former US president Donald Trump in an investigation into his handling of classified documents.
Mr Corcoran recounted in detail a nearly month-long period of the investigation, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
His narration of his recollections covered his initial meeting with Trump in May 2022 to discuss a subpoena from the Justice Department seeking the return of all classified materials in the former president’s possession, the sources said.
It also encompassed a search that Mr Corcoran undertook last June in response to the subpoena for any relevant records kept at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club and residence in Florida.
He carried out the search in preparation for a visit by prosecutors, who were on their way to enforce the subpoena and collect any sensitive material found remaining there.
Government investigators almost never obtain a clear lens into lawyers’ private dealings with their clients.
A recording like the voice memo Mr Corcoran made in 2022 is typically shielded by attorney-client or work-product privilege.
But in March, a federal judge ordered Mr Corcoran’s recorded recollections – now transcribed onto dozens of pages – to be given to the office of special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the documents investigation.
The decision by Judge Beryl Howell pierced the privilege that would have normally protected Mr Corcoran’s musings about his interactions with Trump.
Those protections were set aside under what is known as the crime-fraud exception, a provision that allows prosecutors to work around attorney-client privilege if they have reason to believe that legal advice or legal services were used in furthering a crime.
Judge Howell, in a sealed memorandum that accompanied her decision, made clear that prosecutors believe Trump knowingly misled Mr Corcoran about the location of documents that would be responsive to the subpoena, according to a source familiar with the memo’s contents.
Mr Corcoran’s notes will most likely play a central role as Mr Smith and his team move towards concluding their investigation and turn to the question of whether to bring charges against Trump.
They could also show up as evidence in a courtroom if a criminal case is ultimately filed and goes to trial.
Mr Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump, said “the attorney-client privilege is one of the oldest and most fundamental principles in our legal system”, and he accused the Justice Department of trying to deny Trump “this basic right”. NYTIMES
