An appeals court handed former President Donald Trump’s legal team just a few hours to answer a legal request. The appeals court set the deadline for midnight on Tuesday as his legal troubles over his alleged mishandling of confidential documents started to intensify.
U.S. Judge Beryl Howell of Washington, D.C. District Court noted on Friday that special counsel Jack Smith’s office had preliminary evidence that Trump intentionally misled his attorneys about his mishandling of classified documents after he left office.
Howell, who resigned on Friday, reportedly wrote in the sealed filing that Trump’s attorney Evan Corcoran could not use attorney-client privilege to avoid questioning and ordered him to hand over documents related to the “criminal scheme,” including “handwritten notes, invoices, and transcriptions of personal audio recordings,” according to ABC News. According to the Judge, the prosecution has preliminary evidence that Trump committed crimes in connection with the papers but would require further evidence to pursue charges against the former president.
Corcoran had already testified in January on the events preceding the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago. According to a statement in June, Corcoran attested that Trump’s crew had conducted a “vigorous search” of the boxes from the White House looking for confidential docs at Trump’s Florida home. CNN stated that the attorney who signed the declaration, Christina Bobb, added, “to the best of my knowledge.”
In August, the FBI removed hundreds of confidential and classified documents from Mar-a-Lago. The D.C. Court of Appeals temporarily halted Howell’s decision. Then it imposed an incredibly tight deadline for Trump’s team, giving them hours to answer. Trump’s attorneys need to respond by Tuesday at midnight and “specify each document.”
Smith’s office was given a deadline of 6 a.m. According to Kyle Cheney of Politico, both teams met the deadline. Trump’s team met the midnight deadline by submitting two documents, and Smith’s office responded 30 minutes before the 6 a.m. deadline.
Trump has denied any impropriety linked to the confidential documents, and on Tuesday, his campaign discredited the ABC report and Howell in a statement. According to the issued a statement saying: Shame on Fake News ABC for broadcasting “ILLEGALLY LEAKED” false accusations from a “Never Trump,” now-retired chief judge against the Trump legal team. The statement added that the leaks are occurring because no case against President Trump has any factual or legal foundation or substance. The statement continued that the true story here, which “Fake News ABC” should be focusing on, is that prosecutors only attack attorneys when they have no case whatsoever.