‘Big Blow to Trump!’ CNN Justice Correspondent Says New Ruling ‘Big Boost’ To Trump Criminal Docs Probe

CNN Justice Correspondent Jessica Schneider drove home the seriousness of a new ruling that she says is “a big blow to Trump” and a “big boost” to criminal prosecutors trying to nail him.

On Wednesday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an appeal by former President Donald Trump’s legal team seeking to block Trump attorney Evan Corcoran from testifying and turning over documents to the Special Counsel Jack Smith-led Justice Department probe into Trump’s mishandling of classified information.

On Thursday morning’s edition of CNN This Morning, Schneider told co-anchor Kaitlan Collins that the ruling is a “big blow” to Trump, and Collins called it “remarkable”:

KAITLAN COLLINS: It’s just remarkable that we’re seeing another Trump attorney going for the grand jury, this time with no attorney-client privilege to to say to why he can’t answer certain questions.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER: Yeah. So this is a big blow to Trump and his legal team, but a big boost for the special counsel! This is a top Trump attorney being compelled to give this testimony about his interactions with Trump.

And in this Kaitlan, the courts have really moved swiftly on this. This has been a rapid fire legal battle that’s only played out over the past couple of days. And we’ve learned that Corcoran is expected to appear before the grand jury actually tomorrow. And this is all really potentially key to the special counsel’s classified documents probe, because I’ll take you back. Corcoran is the attorney who drafted a statement in June. He said that Trump’s team had done a diligent search of Mar-a Lago, that there were no remaining classified material there. But in fact, weeks later, the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago, found hundreds of government records, including some of that classified material.

And then in the wake of that, in January, Corcoran was called before the grand jury. He was asked about what happened in the lead-up to that FBI search, but he declined to answer some of the questioning because he did cite that attorney client privilege. So then DOJ challenged that. They said that Corcoran’s discussions with the former president really could have been part of an attempt to plan a crime. And because of that, Corcoran should be compelled to testify.

So, Kaitlan, that’s exactly what is happening here. Evan Corcoran lost at the district court level now. He lost at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and now scheduled to testify before the grand jury tomorrow.

KAITLAN COLLINS: And they’re not going to go to the Supreme Court, which I think is something people may have assumed they were going to do yesterday. But what is the Trump team saying? Because they’re clearly not happy about this. They think it says something about the merits of the actual documents investigation itself.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER: Yeah. So they’re responding here, Kaitlan. They’re saying “There is no factual or legal basis or substance to any case against President Trump. The real story here is that prosecutors only attack lawyers when they have no case whatsoever.”

But really, in reality, Kaitlan, this is significant because Evan Corcoran, he may have that key information about what transpired behind the scenes throughout all those months of negotiating with DOJ to get those classified documents out of Mar-a-Lago back to the government’s hands.

And key here, Kaitlan, you know, whether there was any obstruction by the former president, by any of his top aides in getting those documents back into the government’s hands. So Evan Corcoran could potentially have a lot to tell the grand jury when he meets before them tomorrow.

Watch above via CNN This Morning.

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