By Steve Neavling
The special counsel team investigating Donald Trump convinced a judge that the former president knowingly and deliberately misled his attorneys in furtherance of a crime connected to classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, ABC News first reported, citing sources.
D.C. District Court Judge Beryl Howell found that prosecutors in special counsel Jack Smith’s office had made a “prima facie showing that the former president had committed criminal violations.”
As a result, Howell ruled that prosecutors have overcome Trump’s right to shield discussions with his lawyers that are usually protected under attorney-client privilege.
Still, the judge emphasized that prosecutors need to meet a higher standard of evidence to justify charges against Trump.
“It is a lower hurdle, but it is an indication that the government had presented some evidence and allegation that they had evidence that met the elements of a crime,” Brandon Van Grack, a former top national security official in the Justice Department, told ABC News.
In her sealed filing, Howell said Trump’s defense attorney Evan Corcoran should comply with a grand jury subpoena to testify on six separate lines of inquiry.
According to the sources, Howell also said Corcoran must turn over records involving Trump’s alleged “criminal scheme.”
