When Donald Trump's lawyers appear before Judge Aileen Cannon in a sealed hearing next Tuesday, they will reportedly make a "sweeping request" to have the judge toss out a wide swath of evidence special counsel Jack Smith is prepared to use when the Mar-a-Lago stolen documents case finally goes to trial.
According to a report from the Guardian's Hugo Lowell, insiders revealed the Trump legal team will ask Cannon to "revoke prosecutors’ access to memos made by his ex-lawyer" that are central to the stolen document case as they reveal the former president's attempt to hide the crime.
At issue are contemporaneous notes taken by attorney Evan Corcoran, which chief US district judge Beryl Howell of Washington DC previously ruled are fair game under the crime-fraud exception that grants prosecutors the right "to see privileged communications between a defendant and a lawyer, if their legal advice was used in furtherance of a crime," according to the Guardian's Lowell.
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As he explained, those notes document "Trump asking whether they could ignore the [DOJ} subpoena, or a later suggestion to 'pluck' out some classified documents instead of returning them to the FBI."
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Those notes are central to proving the former president knew he was committing a crime, and the inability for Smith's prosecutors to use them before a jury would gut an major part of the prosecution.
The Guardian report adds, "In the worst case for prosecutors, their evidence of Trump’s obstructive intent could be reduced to CCTV footage of boxes being moved at Mar-a-Lago by his co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, logs of Trump’s calls with Nauta, and testimony about Nauta’s movements."
The report notes it would be a big ask of Cannon following Judge Howell's earlier ruling and could be cause for further delays in a case that has been dragging on with no trial date in sight.
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