it s 4:00. we ve got news we have a behind the scenes legal battle with potentially major consequences for the justice department s investigation into the ex-president s handling of classified documents at mar-a-lago the washington post is reporting this quote, a federal judge has at least partially granted a request from u.s. prosecutors to force an attorney for donald trump to testify before a grand jury about the former president s possession of classified documents after leaving office that s according to two people briefed on the decision. evan corcoran had refused to answer investigators questions about his interactions with trump. prosecutors sought to show the chief u.s. guess strict judge beryla.howell of washington that there were grounds of a crime-fraud exception. they spoke anonymously because this is under seal this breaking news is is where we start today with some of our favorite reporters and friends jackie alamany is here her by-line is on that neil is here
today. attorney-client privilege is hard to break for the best of reasons. if i m meeting a client, i want them to feel like they can be free with me so i can defend them at the same time, its aides obviously a problem if i as their attorney is criming with them so a client can t give me the dope and help me sell it and then say, oh, we re privileged or something like that so core to our profession is the idea that an attorney can t aid in the commission of a crime, and if you do, if you further the crime in any way, then that isn t something you get attorney-client privilege for. and it looks like from jackie s amazing washington post reporting that this judge, beryl howell, incredibly well respected judge in washington, d.c., has said that s the problem with the assertion of the attorney-client privilege here, that mr. corcoran looks like he was involved in the furtherance of a crime and so, you know, why is this relevant
investigation into him, the one that was conducted by the muller team i think there were six, there was the obstructive act, there was the next specific crime and we all became terrified to check rosenberg and how to prove obstruction. one thing that was said derisively and dismissively by the justice department at the time, without an underlying crime, the obstruction stuff was just process do you think this justice department sees it that way? not at all. so, i mean, process crimes, first of all, can be incredibly important because the system depends on people coming forth and telling the truth, even after they ve made mistakes. so if you re hiding evidence, you know, the way that it looks like evan corcoran might have been involved in, that s a serious problem in and of itself the second thing, there might have been kind of convoluted arguments about no substantive crime in the russia investigation, i totally
former attorney, to testify. we know that this ruling and this opinion that was given by beryl howell was given are back to the department of justice to redact certain investigative details that they potentially think need to be withheld and trump lawyers will then review that redacted opinion next week but, again, we know that evan corcoran has previously refused to answer investigator s questions when he appeared before the grand jury earlier this year, i believe in january, invoking attorney-client privilege, but u.s. prosecutors had argued that there was evidence that a client, that being mr. trump, had used the attorney s legal services in furtherance of a crime and beryl howell s ruling shows
disagree, but here there s no doubt. you don t get to get if you re the government official, you don t get to take highly sensitive documents home it s a crime every day of the week i mean, i served as national security adviser at the justice department i never heard of the possible idea that thrl isn t a crime of course it s a crime government doesn t always prosecute it why not? because you come in and say i made a mistake here s why it was inadvertent. if it wasn t inadvertent, you try and cut a deal the way sand sandyburg sandy berger did. the indeed, part of the i think it s the espyionage act said failure to turn over