By Casey Gannon, Sara Murray and Katelyn Polantz, CNN
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump are in federal court in Washington on Thursday for a sealed proceeding on whether his defense attorney should answer more questions from a grand jury, according to a source familiar with the proceedings.
The hearing, before Chief Judge Beryl Howell, relates to whether Trump’s defense attorney, Evan Corcoran, should testify further about his interactions with the former president in a grand jury investigation into the handling of classified documents.
The proceeding is one of several behind-the-scenes attempts by the Justice Department to get more answers from people close to Trump in criminal investigations. Trump has largely lost these proceedings before Howell in the face of Jack Smith’s special counsel investigation.
Trump’s lawyers, John Rowley, Jim Trusty and Corcoran, are all in court.
Rowley told CNN on Thursday that he was scheduled to have a hearing before Howell, but declined to provide further information because the proceedings were under secrecy.
Prosecutors have asked the court to compel Corcoran to answer questions he refused to answer in a recent grand jury appearance as a witness. Corcoran declined to answer questions that would have divulged his advice to Trump and his conversations, citing attorney-client privilege, CNN reported.
To overcome Corcoran’s resistance, prosecutors argued in federal court that Trump may have used his lawyer to promote crime or fraud, a weighty allegation in the ongoing investigation.
His search is part of the special counsel’s investigation into the handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after the Trump presidency and possible obstruction of justice.
Corcoran first testified before the grand jury in January and was asked what happened in the lead up to the August search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
Corcoran had drafted a statement in June attesting that Trump’s team had conducted a “diligent search” and that there were no further classified documents at Trump’s Florida residence.
After that, the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago and found hundreds of government records, including classified material, raising questions about the lawyer’s statement.
The CNN Wire
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