Spoke, please keep yourself and your team as safe as you can. Thanks, jim im jim sciutto. The news continues the source with kaitlan collins, starts now these, cnn Breaking News ive got some Breaking News for you tonight. Ive been speaking with sources and can now report a key attorney has left Donald Trumps legal team that lawyer happens to be a major witness in the classified documents case against him. Tonight, ive learned that Evan Corcoran, his quietly departed trumps legal team. This matters because corcoran is potentially going to be a critical a witness against trump if that case ever goes to trial he was the one who went through the storage room at maralago about two summers ago, looking for classified documents after they received a subpoena from the Justice Department. Trump allegedly misled him about the whereabouts of those documents, and also encouraged him, his attorney to lie to the Justice Department remember, corporate actually had to go and testify before a grand jury investigating the case. After a judge ruled that he couldnt use attorneyclient privilege to shield from investigators. The meticulous notes that he had taken about his interactions with donald trump as we later saw, those notes helps lay the groundwork for prosecutors to indict trump, referring to corcoran as trump attorney number one, 20 times. And that indictment if the documents case ever goes to trial, and thats a major question tonight. Corcoran would likely be a key witness for the prosecution, even though he ultimately recused himself from representing trump in that case, he had stayed on for a bit and the other federal case against trump, the one for Election Interference if youll remember, he was there alongside trump when he was arraigned and washington last fall . That is no longer the case though. I have heard. And heres why this matters tonight. Its corcoran role as a witness in the documents probe that can pose the biggest problem for donald trump . Corcoran recorded voice memos that turned into detailed notes about his conversations with the former president , including instances where trumps suggested that he should mislead the Justice Department. There was that unforgettable moment that was detailed in the indictment from the special counsel, jack smith after Evan Corcoran had found some classified documents at maralago, about 38 of them. They were discussing what to do with them. Evan corcoran and donald trump when the former president asked him, quote, did you find anything is it bad . Good . According to corcoran notes, trump made a Plucking Motion during the conversation, which Evan Corcoran took to mean. Okay. Why dont you take them with you to your hotel room . And if theres anything really bad in there, like, you know, pluck it out of course, as we all know now. And from that indictment, a few months later, the fbi showed back up at maralago with a search warrant. Ive an allstar team here with us to discuss this Breaking News. Cnn senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor elie honig, and also seen in political commentator and senior Political Correspondent for the New York Times and trump biographer maggie haberman. And maggie, i mean, just to hear this quiet, but a big departure from the trump legal team. Yeah. Its very interesting because as you say, corcoran is a key witness. If this case ever goes to trial, he provided prosecutors and it was under subpoena. This was as you noted prosecutors went and pierced the attorneyclient privilege under the crime fraud exception, the trump team had fought this. There was nothing corcoran could do, but corcoran kept notes. He he he had recorded notes of his conversations with trump and those were extremely helpful to prosecutors as they were trying to figure throughout certain things that had taken place in the aftermath of their repeated efforts to try to get these documents back and their trip to maralago to try to get documents back. Now one of the things that we have seen with trump repeatedly is lawyers leaving him. And what that ends up looking like or other witnesses and allies leaving him and what that ends up looking like. Hes about to go on trial in manhattan and the key witness at the central witness is his former personal lawyer and fixer, michael cohen. So the notion of lawyers departing trumps world bold looms very, very large. Now, i dont know when this case will go to trial. Its at the moment, it certainly doesnt seem like its on track anytime before the election. What it would look like if trump loses the election, and then, then what happens with the case. We have no idea. But this is significant in trumps world, le, what do you i mean, just to hear Something Like this, whats stands out to you . The last thing that any Criminal Defense Lawyer wants is to turn into a witness against his own client or former client. They try everything to avoid that scenario and for that reason, hes going to be an especially effective witness for the prosecution because its going to be clear to all involve that the last place he wants to be Evan Corcoran is in that witness, but sometimes thats the job. Now, if people are willing witnesses to get up there and tell all, he just is going to be potentially four, you has to do his job, know if people are wondering how could an attorney testify against the client isnt there this thing we hear about called the attorneyclient privilege. The answer is that has been pierced, broken in this case because youll remember a federal judge ruled last year that the conversations that donald trump was having with Evan Corcoran were in furtherance of a crime that to be clear, does not mean Evan Corcoran was complicit in that crime, but means what trump was trying to do through Evan Corcoran was committed the crime of obstruction, so hes gonna be a really important witness. And that was so where i mean, that was a huge fight with the District Judge in washington over compelling him to good go and testify that they fought. But in the end, i mean, they lost and he had to go and he couldnt say, oh, im not answering that question because its attorneyclient privilege he had to answer the question. Its a big deal to break through that privilege. I mean, that privilege is sacrosanct and judges do not do that lightly. So this judge held a hold hearing and ruled, yeah. What donald trump is doing was trying to break the law through Evan Corcoran and Evan Corcoran role here is he was sort of the unwitting vehicle through which donald trump misled the fbi. Its very specific to the Obstruction Piece of this investigation and the Obstruction Piece of the investigation the documents investigation tends to get overlooked, right . It gets the part that gets focused on is the National Security secrets that trump had at maralago. But theres also this second aspect of allegedly misleading investigators and that is where m. Corcoran is a big piece. And i should know, and this is important. The trump legal team, or the trump team is denying those. Theyre denying are reporting. We reached out to them before we came on they said that Evan Corcoran is still there on the legal team. Theyre arguing. But i get i respond to their denial. Sharkey cant possibly stay on the legal team. I mean, its almost a mathematical impossibility once you are a witness against the person which he now is, you cant stay on the rising. It took this long yeah. Yeah. The trump team also said that the new york time it was wrong and saying that trump has been privately saying he liked to federal abortion ban. And we were not wrong. So do it that what you will, you are quite familiar with the history of denials, right . But maggie, you were one of the first people and your colleagues to report on the notes that Evan Corcoran took and i think when people are looking back at this and theyre trying to remember which attorney is this in which case the notes were live . The ballgame that kinda shocked trump and others that he had such detailed notes of conversations that he had with donald trump. We were also the first people actually to report on the efforts by prosecutors to pearce attorneyclient privilege to the crime fraud exception. And what we learned about why they wanted to do that was detailed in these notes and one of the things thats so striking about it and you know this very well, donald trump doesnt like when his lawyers take notes. He doesnt like when Anyone Around him takes notes, he he has been like this for decades. There was a meeting that he had at trump tower many, many years ago where he swooped in behind a Junior Lawyer at his Conference Table and crumpled up the notes. The guy was taking this was his approach in the white house. This is his approach so the notion that there was such a detailed roadmap by one of trumps lawyers is disquieting to trim if i can add that the fact on the contrary, that Evan Corcoran was taking such detailed notes and he was doing voice memos, right where it was while he was driving, right . While he was just so hes taking extraordinarily detailed notes that tells me he had to have some inkling like im going to need to memorialize this at some point. Well, and weve seen the history of Trump Attorneys who have gotten in trouble before. I was think about this moment. We interviewed trump employee five, brian butler than former maralago employee in the classified documents investigation, he brought up this attorney for people who maybe are wondering who he is. I just want to play the moment of what brian butler told us about this its, its funny because i remember seeing this taller guy. Think flick back silver hair. I think it was who i now know to be Evan Corcoran and, i saw a bunch of other people in The Living Room. I had no clue. Im just seeing all these people. I have no clue what theyre there for. I was on the Cloister Outside Over by the bar and the former president was walking towards The Living Room like he was gonna enter The Living Room. He was with secret service. I remember he said hi to be hi, brian im mr. Trump or President Trump and then he went in and talked to them, but i had no clue who those people were well, youre now he knows, but that moment matters because that was when corcoran was searching to find the documents that matched the subpoena, thinking he had gone through the boxes, but what we know from whats alleged new diamond, its trump was telling these other guys to move move them the day before corcoran went through that maralago storage room . Yes. And one thing that i was just thinking about what ellie said a second ago about how am corcoran may have felt the need to memorialize what was happening in a normal world, taking notes about whats happening, especially in this kind of a scenario where you are dealing with the fbi is not abnormal. This is actually what heres do you take notes you make sure that you have a detailed record of everything that you have done. So, yes. Evan corcoran was doing what he thought that he was supposed to be doing, as we understand it, which is look through a set of boxes. It turned out that there was what prosecutors have described as a shell game, and investigators have described as a shell game with these boxes that was a significant moment. It just looked different than what people realize from what they were seeing in that moment. Yeah, i guess it does speak to the level of what its like to be an attorney working for donald trump. Its a tough gig. I mean, look like lets look through the history you mentioned michael color, right . Weve seen johnny smith. Now. Hes indicted. He lost his license. Jeffrey clark hes indicted. He lost his license. Sidney powell, shes indicted. Agenda ella, shes indicted both pled guilty. Rudy giuliani, i mean, its its really hard to think of an example of someone who is represented trump and come out of it with their financial situation intact. Theyre professional reputation intact their exposure to crimes intact. Its a grueling job, its a tough gig and here were going to end up with a situation where this guy is going to take the stand against his former client depending on what happens with the case. And also the original attorneys who were working on these two cases when they were still investigations and not actual cases. Theyre all gone from the legal team. John rally, jim, trustee. Now, ive corcoran, all those names are not going to be the ones taking this to trial. Now, i mean, trump cycle through lawyers. We have seen this over and over and over again. This goes back frankly, many, many years, but certainly at least from when hes from the time when he was president on, he cycled through lawyers during the molar investigation. He cycled through the layers around his efforts to stay in power. He has cycled through lawyers since leaving the white house. Hes about to go on trial. Well see what this looks like to that end. Let me just phage like, watch the dynamic between his legal team and donald trump and you both will be reporting on this because theres always a little bit of tension at trial. Sometimes the Defense Lawyer wants to go one way, the client wants them to be more aggressive. Here are less aggressive, theyre and that can bubble over and sometimes that gets reflected in the courtroom itself. Youve seen it already, at least in the civil cases, there was a lot of donald trump literally poking at his lawyer, alina habba, to get up. And you just reported on his latest attorney, todd blanche, around he is now at the forefront of all and how he has changed his life around donald trump, which is what a lot of layers to maggie haberman, elie honig always great to have you both onset of the great to have you tonight. Of course, before all the trump legal drama, there was the trial of the century last century back in the public consciousness tonight with the death of oj simpson, were why did you join in moments by a member of the socalled dream team who helped oj simpson get acquitted of Double Murder also hear someone who missed a while, oday simpson was in the backseat of white ford bronco and the police chase. That was seen around the world. Thats bob costas back in a moment the, source with kaitlan collins. Hes brought to you by up devo plus your voice. Find out more at up diva oh. 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