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The special counsel investigating Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents is seeking to compel a lawyer for the former president to testify before a grand jury, a source familiar with the matter told NBC News.
A sealed filing from prosecutors alleges they have evidence that some of Trump’s conversations with the attorney were in furtherance of a crime, the source said.
In a sign of an aggressive new legal strategy, first reported by The New York Times, the source said special counsel Jack Smith has asked a judge to allow prosecutors to invoke what’s known as the “crime fraud” exception, which would let them sidestep protections afforded to Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran through attorney-client privilege.
The source did not say what questions the government is trying to force Corcoran to answer.
NBC News has reached out to Corcoran and a Trump spokesperson for comment.
The effort by Smith comes months after FBI agents executed a search warrant on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in August in order to recover classified material after determining that a certification signed by his custodian of record at the time that claimed all sensitive records had been returned was inaccurate.
NBC News reported earlier that Trump’s custodian of record at the time, Christina Bobb, told investigators that Corcoran had drafted and told her to sign a letter certifying that all sensitive records in Trump’s possession had been returned to the government.
Zoë Richards and Vaughn Hillyard contributed.
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