NY.- A federal judge has ruled that the prosecutor’s office overseeing the investigation into former President Donald J. Trump’s handling of classified documents can strike down the attorney-client privilege claim and force one of his lawyers to answer more questions in front of a large audience. jury, according to what two people who have knowledge of the matter said this Friday.
In her ruling, Judge Beryl A. Howell found that the government had met the requirements to use a special provision of the law known as the crime-fraud exception.
That provision allows prosecutors to circumvent attorney-client privilege when they have reason to believe that legal advice or services have been used to commit a crime.
The New York Times reported last month that the prosecution had asked Judge Howell to apply the crime-fraud exception to the grand jury testimony of M. Evan Corcoran, a lawyer who has represented Trump since last spring, while that the investigation into the documents was beginning to heat up.
In recent months, Corcoran has appeared before a grand jury and used attorney-client privilege and declined to answer certain questions.
The attorney-client privilege is a foundation of a legal principle designed to protect private communications between attorneys and their clients.
Judge Howell’s sealed ruling that the crime-fraud exception applies in this case is important because she has obtained the go-ahead of a federal judge on the prosecution’s assertion that the job Corcoran’s legal document could have been used in the commission of a crime.
It is unknown what crime the prosecution could claim has been committed — or who may have committed it.
But among the issues the Justice Department has been examining since last year is whether Trump or his associates obstructed justice by failing to comply with repeated demands to return a series of government documents he removed from the White House at the conclusion of his mandate, including hundreds of classified documents.
