NY.- A lawyer for former President Donald J. Trump appeared before a federal grand jury investigating his handling of sensitive government documents that he took to his club and residence in Mar-a-Lago after his term ended, according to reports. this Friday two people who are aware of the matter.
The attorney, M. Evan Corcoran, a member of Trump’s legal team who provided the former president’s responses to the administration’s repeated requests to return those documents, could offer first-hand information about the FBI’s search in the month of August and information about whether Trump knew those documents remained with his club.
It is not known when and under what circumstances he appeared.
Corcoran has surprised the Justice Department by telling federal officials that Trump returned all classified documents in his possession.
As part of Trump’s legal team, Corcoran was present at negotiations with the Justice Department in January 2022, after the National Archives and Records Administration recovered 15 boxes of presidential documents from Mar-a-Lago containing nearly 200 documents. classified.
In May 2022, Corcoran was in contact with the Department after a grand jury issued a subpoena to obtain the remaining classified documents that Trump withheld.
He was also present the following month when a high-ranking counterintelligence officer from the Justice Department visited Mar-a-Lago and collected more than 30 additional classified documents.
At that time, another attorney working for Trump, Christina Bobb, signed a statement attesting that “a diligent search” had been conducted for the rest of the classified documents and that all those in Trump’s possession were turned over.
The testimony was redacted by Corcoran, though Bobb added redaction to make it less irrefutable before signing it, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The statement was not true, as after the visit, the Justice Department obtained additional information from a witness and from a security camera that showed there was probable cause for the FBI to conduct the search in August.
