alex, i want to get your reaction to this. >> yeah. >> corcoran knows that this is not -- and yet corcoran is the lawyer who has to turn to the fbi and certify it is on the level. so what evan corcoran does, which is pretty smart, trump attorney won contacted a another trump attorney. [laughter] trump attorney three. and asked her if she would come to the mar-a-lago club the next morning and act as a custodian of the records and sinister defecation regarding the search of documents with classification markings in

he then tells corcoran famously to pluck, right. does is call another lawyer to say will you come and sign. >> right. >> that to me is an unbelievable set of facts, corcoran's first instinct, he's done the thing. he hasn't been told explicitly by donald trump or walt nauta, we are breaking the law. >> and you're highlighting something so important. he's not just thinking corcoran about what he knows, as a lawyer he's thinking about, what will the doj be able to say i should have known at this moment, what they call a reasonable standard, reasonable lawyer, and he's thinking i'm not so dumb that i will be able to claim this was on the level. >> i right now have a problem. my client is obviously a liar, and is, i think, i don't know, but i suspect engaged in obstruction of justice. i'm going to be asked to sign a document and represent to the government to the best of my knowledge this is all on the up and up, but i know it's not. what's my way out? he gets on the phone and calls christina bobb and says can you drive to mar-a-lago and

and according to corcoran's notes, trump made a plucking motion suggesting if corcoran had found somethingblematic, perhaps it should be plucked out of the batch of documents that were being turned over. >> the day after, on june 3rd, 2022, trump's legal team submitted false statements. >> if you look at the indictment, it seems like evan corcoran and some of the other lawyers were sort of used as dupes by trump. what it appears is trump had his people move documents in and out of the storage room so that corcoran would only find certain things and then certify to doj, this is all i found. corcoran was part of a group of lawyers who put together this certification saying, we've done a diligent search of mar-a-lago, and these 38 documents are all that we found that's responsive. turned out there was 100-plus more classified documents. the question is who knew that that certification was false? >> coming up -- federal agents search mar-a-lago. she gets exactly what she wants, and only pays for what she needs. she picks only the perks she wants, and saves on every one. all with an incredible

>> evan corcoran is attorney one. it's clear from the context here that attorney one is evan corcoran. >> so he's there at mar-a-lago, it says, to discuss the response to this may 11th subpoena. and trump attorney one, evan corcoran, and trump attorney two tell trump that they need to search for documents that would be responsive to the subpoena. they need to provide a certification that there had been compliance with the subpoena. trump in sum and substance made the following statements among others as memorialized by trump attorney one evan corcoran. a, i don't want anybody looking. i don't want anybody looking through my boxes. i really don't. i don't want you looking through my boxes. b, well, what if we -- what happens if we just don't respond at all or don't play ball with them? c, wouldn't it be better if we just told them we don't have anything here? d, well, look, isn't it better if there are no documents? and then going to the -- it appears to the same meeting, he describes in sum and substance the following

that's the way this is charged that he milked evan corcoran for legitimate advice, corcoran gave him good advice based on what -- >> don't hide it. >> and trump then makes sure the documents disappear, corcoran doesn't find them, and then the government's told that there are none. >> bottom line here, i know there's going to be an argument on whether corcoran's notes are included or not. i looked through the indictment and just pretended they were all gone. i'm still left with walt nauta moving boxes and moving boxes. i'm left with evan corcoran going in the next morning and the boxes aren't there. it's all there, he's still having that conversation with the pac. i said 400 years combined for all the charges. you take corcoran out, it's still terrible, isn't it? >> that's part of the problem is that if you have -- and this is something i've been saying for a little while here, is that if you really have such a damning air-tight case as they claim to have, you don't need to insert things like evan corcoran. you don't need to commit misconduct before the grand jury. you don't need to l

corcoran goes to trump and says you have to turn everything in. he's like, couldn't we say they're not there, no, you have to turn it in. on june 1st, trump speaks with corcoran and asked whether trump attorney one was coming to mar-a-lago the next day for exactly what purpose. trump attorney one reminds trump trump attorney one was going to review the boxes transported from the white house and remained in storage at mar-a-lago, so trump attorney one could have a custodian of records certify the may 11th subpoena had been fully complied with. june 2nd, the day trump attorney one is scheduled to review those boxes in the storage room, trump speaks with nada, who is his valet, on the phone at 9:28 a.m. for approximately 24 seconds, later that day, between 12:33 p.m. and 12:52 p.m., nada and an employee of the mar-a-lago club moved approximately 30 boxes from trump's residence to the storage room. in some between may 23, 2022, and june 2nd, before trump attorney one's review of trump's boxes in the storage room, nada at trump's direction moved approx

it's not the united states against evan corcoran. i think the focus has to be on donald trump's wrong doing, not on the others, and that is for a host of reasons. i think the most fabulous is evan corcoran -- when trump tried to get him to do all the, as detailed and paragraph if the four of the indictment, corcoran my thought to himself, we'll, not a distaff was actually classified in the end because trump is telling me that it is the classified and maybe, corcoran did not have experience with national security information, did not know how bananas such a difference would be. so, he could have acted in good faith, it's possible. i think andrew makes the important point that regardless of -- at that point, what ultimately was litigated and brought to this very respected judge in washington, d. c., and then ultimately to our nation's second court, the united states court of appeals for the district of columbia, should attorney-client privilege in the current note speak given over to prosecutors? and they took the radical step, really

it's not the united states against evan corcoran. i think the focus has to be on donald trump's wrong doing, not on the others, and that is for a host of reasons. i think the most fabulous is evan corcoran -- when trump tried to get him to do all the, as detailed and paragraph if the four of the indictment, corcoran my thought to himself, we'll, not a distaff was actually classified in the end because trump is telling me that it is the classified and maybe, corcoran did not have experience with national security information, did not know how bananas such a difference would be. so, he could have acted in good faith, it's possible. i think andrew makes the important point that regardless of -- at that point, what ultimately was litigated and brought to this very respected judge in washington, d.c., and then ultimately to our nation's second court, the united states court of appeals for the district of columbia, should attorney-client privilege in the current note speak given over to prosecutors? and they took the radical step, really u

corcoran told him he had to comply with it.o receive 38 classified documents corcoran found in a storage room. what he didn't know, was trump had directed walt nauta to move boxes before he searched a storage room. trump asked him, did you find anything? is it bad? good? then, they discussed the folder of the classified documents. notes taken by attorney 1 says, when trump made a plucking motion, suggesting the attorney remove anything that was, quote, really bad from the folder. fast forward to this, corcoran before a grand jury, after a federal judge ordered him ruling that attorney/client privilege didn't shield his discussions with donald trump because the ex-president may have been trying to commit a crime, by using his attorneys. corcoran's notes are what "the new york times" has described as some of the most damning evidence in this case. >> thanks, sara. >>> what will the trump legal strategy be? laura coates and defense attorney shan wu. "the new york times" did a nice time laying out four possible avenues of defense f

alex, i want to get your reaction to this. >> yeah. >> corcoran knows that this is not -- and yet corcoranlawyer who has to turn to the fbi and certify it is on the level. so what evan corcoran does, which is pretty smart, trump attorney won contacted a another trump attorney. [laughter] trump attorney three. and asked her if she would come to the mar-a-lago club the next morning and act as a custodian of the records and sinister defecation regarding the search of documents with classification markings in response to the may 11th subpoena. trump attorney three, who had no role in the review, agreed. >> i wrote in the margin there, christina bobb thrown under bus. that is what happened there. although, she shielded herself from the liability quite skillfully. that christina bobb. but the story of the way in which trump lied to his lawyers, put them in harm's way, expected that they would do his dirty work, it's stunning. it bears mentioning, because there's been so much news today, the two lawyers, john raleigh and jim trusty, who were handling all of this, resigned this morning. that leave

corcoran recalls this in his testimony to the department of justice. trump made a phony motion as the, why if you take them with you to your hotel room, and if there's anything really bad and they're, like you know, pluck it out. that was the motion that he made. he didn't say that. >> corcoran is saying, at one point, after you obtain these 38 classified documents, from mar-a-lago. talking to the former president about what to do these classified documents. the former president essentially telling his own attorney, hey, listen buddy, takes on those classified documents out if you shouldn't be handing them over the. to the department justice after this. how damning is that? >> it's insane. because if you think about, as a former trial lawyer myself, i've had difficult and complex cases. i'll take notes, yasmin, about the facts of the case. maybe some witness interviews that i've done. i'm not taking these types of notes. 50 pages of notes that were taken or transcribed by evan corcoran involving his client, donald trump. it makes you stop and think for

corcoran has wised up, like some of the lawyers i showed you before.g to land. but he is fulling an mcgahn. there are new reports from earlier this week that show corcoran made tapes. very unusual. recording voice notes laying out in detail a nearly month long period of the documents investigation with trump aides worried that the tapes he may have may be direct quotes from sensitive conversations or could include what trump and others told him. detailed lies or acts which he clearly now wants no part of. >> so, you look at this together, and you see that the history really matters. if you read one at article about someone like corcoran or see one more lawyer running around. i don't know which is important, which one is telling the truth, and there are tapes. but you take it together in the context of the way that donald trump has methodically and sometimes been caught trying to use these lawyers, from mcgahn, who mueller found sometimes stopped what could have been crimes, although was pulled into obstruction, to cohen who went to prison for crimes fo

donald trump's former lawyer evan corcoran could be a key witness for the prosecution. despite attorney/client privilege. and joining me now to offer perspective is doug brinkley. doug, it is really hard to miss some of the parallels here, another lawyer testifying against his boss, the president. >> absolutely parallels. and what they share in common, john dean and evan corcoran, is they're professionals as what they're doing as lawyers. dean may have been a nixon republican, cork man might be a trump republican at heart. but when push comes to shove, they tand up for the department of justice and i always think of corcoran as being kind of an adjunct figure to former attorney general barr. and to hear barr talk about what deep trouble president trump's in right now, it is the weekend story because dean didn't want to turn on nixon and corcoran and barr don't want to turn on trump. their hitched to those in history. but when the pressure came on, they did the right thing. we think with corcoran and certainly dean did. >> and one of the differences though, between the n

evan corcoran went in and talked to the grand jury. there's also another interaction in which the former president tells a funny story, he says, about hillary clinton and tells how hillary clinton's own lawyers protected her. he's trying to suggest, according to prosecutors, for evan corcoran to lie and take a bullet, essentially, for the former president to try to conceal these documents. wolf? >> evan, thank you very much. i want to go right now to katelyn polantz, she's joining us from miami. as we've been reporting, the judge assigned to this case, at least right now, is a rather controversial judge. >> reporter: well, she has become somewhat controversial, because she has seen a part of this case before. this is judge aileen cannon. she is a trump appointee, has only been on the bench a few years sitting in this district, the southern district of florida. where she came into play in this case previously was because donald trump's team, after that search at mar-a-lago in august of 2022, they went to court and they tried to slow thi

evan corcoran, it turns out he knew it was a, what was up, rates?tect himself from a person like trump who obviously knows has a history of throwing people, and especially his attorneys, under the bus, and lying to them. corcoran did himself a solid by memorializing and recording the orders that he was given. you had michael cohen on. at that michael cohen wishes that in certain situations he had been more meticulous about surreptitiously recording and memorializing thing that trump sent to head. corcoran has learned from other peoples mistakes, and while surely it was the help of his own self, i think it's actually help the investigation and might eventually help bring trump to justice. that was a nice turn. katie, i'm still floored at the bit where he says, you know, when i was president i couldn't have declassified it, but now i can. that was his whole defense! his entirely go defense was like everything i declassified, so why are you even asking me about it. he's on tape saying, this ain't declassified and i can declassify it now. okay, that's t

alex, i want to get your reaction to this. >> yeah. >> corcoran knows that this is not -- and yet corcoran certify it is on the level. so what evan corcoran does, which is pretty smart, trump attorney won contacted a another trump attorney. [laughter] trump attorney three. and asked her if she would come to the mar-a-lago club the next morning and act as a custodian of the records and sinister defecation regarding the search of documents with classification markings in response to the may 11th subpoena. trump attorney three, who had no role in the review, agreed. >> i wrote in the margin there, christina bobb thrown under bus. that is what happened there. although, she shielded herself from the liability quite skillfully. that christina bobb. but the story of the way in which trump lied to his lawyers, put them in harm's way, expected that they would do his dirty work, it's stunning. it bears mentioning, because there's been so much news today, the two lawyers, john raleigh and jim trusty, who were handling all of this, resigned this morning. that leaves trump -- >> can i just on the quest

corcoran. they say he also brought mr.coran some tape so that he could seal in a fold ter classified documents he found in preparation for giving them to prosecutors." what do you make of just the sort of tip of the iceberg that we're learning about? not just written notes but narrated by mr. corcoran. >> it's important for a couple reasons. it points to a set of activities that are beyond one person, that it was not potentially just donald trump who engaged in this potentially illegal activity but he worked with others in the conduct of this illegal activity. that's important because obstruction is a stand-alone criminal count, but it's also important in the context of when the department of justice is charged mishandling cases in the past. for 20 years i investigated dozens upon dozens of mishandling investigations, worked with prosecutors on taking several of those to trial and obtaining convictions. but every time doj has take an mishandling case to trial, it's usually in the context of there are large amounts of class

alex, i want to get your reaction to this. >> yeah. >> corcoran knows that this is not -- and yet corcoran is the lawyer who has to turn to the fbi and certify it is on the level. so what evan corcoran does, which is pretty smart, trump attorney won contacted a another trump attorney. [laughter] trump attorney three. and asked her if she would come to the mar-a-lago club the next morning and act as a custodian of the records and sinister defecation regarding the search of documents with classification markings in response to the may 11th subpoena. trump attorney three, who had no role in the review, agreed. >> i wrote in the margin there, christina bobb thrown under bus. that is what happened there. although, she shielded herself from the liability quite skillfully. that christina bobb. but the story of the way in which trump lied to his lawyers, put them in harm's way, expected that they would do his dirty work, it's stunning. it bears mentioning, because there's been so much news today, the two lawyers, john raleigh and jim trusty, who were handling all of this, resigned this morning. th

we know that evan corcoran continually made voice memos and notes of his communications with trump. that could be a treasure trove for investigators here, in terms of what trump said tevin corcoran, versus what they now know trump knew to be the case, which was that he was in possession of classified documents and heat nonetheless maintained control and possession of them, despite the fact that he knew the federal government wanted them back. >> well, lisa, speaking of recordings, the recording of trump that came from meeting with mark meadows, biographers. talk me through the role that trump's former chief of staff could be playing in these investigations. >> mark meadows has been really silent and quiet, as of late. we know from other reporting, for example, that mark meadows was playing a behind the scenes role in the debt ceiling negotiations, but vis-À-vis this investigation, nobody knows where mark meadows has been. however, as you just noted, there's recording of a july 2021 meeting at bedminster, where two of his assistants involved in the creation of his memoir, the chiefs

that corcoran provided.her way they are very detailed. and obviously, they are damning pieces of evidence. prosecutors included in this indictment. >> yeah. timothy you also the former lead investigator on the house january six select committee. one of the things you learned while investigating trump was how he was handling documents. what strikes me most about this case? >> yes, alex. thanks very much for the question. we learn from a lot of witnesses that there was a very cavalier approach to the presidential records act. the important obligations that were maintained in official documents. witnesses told us that the president would tear things up. and throw them in the trash. several of the documents that we obtained from the national archives appear to have been torn and taken, taped back together. consisted with what we heard about fishing stuff either the trash can. so i don't know anything unique about the new indictment that was filed by the special counsel. but the lax approach to adherence, to the

a bunch of red flags that corcoran knew he had a problem.en it came time to write the statement which said there were no more documents here, no more, he drafted it but would not even sign it. okay, that is a red flag. then, he gives it to another lawyer, who said 1 million other problems, she wouldn't sign, and lord knows she would sign anything. and that was some kind of a disclaimer. now we also know, which shows there is a huge problem, that corcoran has been in the grand jury, and also kept meticulous, long no. it's like he was writing a novel or something about every conversation that he had, he audiotaped am. and they have been transcribed and given to the grand jury. so it was so detailed, is beyond lawyers notes. that is another red flag, he knows he is dealing with somebody who is not being straight with him. so the federal judge has the relationship, he has those notes and now what's also happening in this crazy legal team, is that parlatore is quite. he's accusing this boris guy of constructing basically, accusing him of getting

corcoran was basically going i'm not playing ball for you. i'm not doing it. >> you expect corcoran to take the stand? >> absolutely. it's clear he's been in the grand jury, clear in these notes. >> we didn't get to this the other day, what's two or three questions you'd ask him? >> it's not going to be two or three? >> i know. just highlight. >> first you're going to take the tape recordings and say are these your notes that you took to record what happened and are they accurate? and then you're going to go through everything that happened sort of like with trump and what he said when the subpoena came in, and just it's all -- this alone is grave. i'm sure this is sinomsis. >> would you ask him, well, why didn't you carry this out? >> yeah, well, he's going to say because i didn't want to lose my bar ticket. >> so the jury potentially -- the jury could hear a trump lawyer and very recently in good standing saying i couldn't do that because it was criminal, and that's sort of what was going on in the inside of the room in secret. kristy, i wa

obviously evan corcoran, his was critical, but the audio in the indictment lays out two occasions at the club in bedminster, trump allegedly showdown off these classified documents to people who didn't have security clearance. one of the documents was a plan of attack against iran, and that's where there's audio. cnn first reported on this last week where you hear trump saying and acknowledging that the documents that were in his possession were indeed not decla declassified, cutting against his claims publicly that all the documents he took were automatically declassified by him. but how significant do you think that audio recording was in getting to this indictment? >> well, i think that's paragraph 34. paragraph 35 is the sharing of a classified map with members of the trump pact. those two are the most damning, because they show knowledge on his part of classified documents and purposeful sharing of that with people who are unauthorized to receive it. i think that audiotape was very important in charging that particular count, and i think will be very important for the jury to un

you know evan corcoran really well. d.c.allowed that crime fraud exception to be pierced, but florida could be a different story, right? >> i think you're 100% right. i think it's a big issue in the case because it relates both to the return of the grand jury indictment and potentially to the trial. there's actually relatively recent case, 2021 case from the 11th circuit, which is the court of appeals that sits over this court in the southern district of florida, and that case had to sort of try to flesh out the -- it's called the grand jury subpoena, they had to try to flesh out the crime fraud exception because remember, one of the most sacrosanct privileges we have in the law is the attorney/client privilege. however, the law recognizes this crime fraud exception. there's two prongs to it. one is that the court has to be convinced there was a conversation related to the furtherance of a crime or possible crime. that's a very low hurdle, but then the second prong is was the conversation at issue related to the furtherance

nobody knew they had the corcoran tapes until the new york times advance that in the past weekend.just the past two weeks. and andrew has pointed out that they also had heavily researched the circuit split for the possible venue appeal if there were double jeopardy claim, which is very arcane. i had that one purpose, which is to say they have been ahead of a lot of things. they know about her because of the history recorded, alex. they obviously have to have been ready for it. if we bring us in florida, we could get different types of judges than you might see, and they went forward that way. so they certainly have to be prepared with some plan b and see here. >> but it is a corcoran notes that she might actually keep out, and that's the thing -- >> and that is cause for great concern given this indictment. we will take a quick break, we'll have a final thought on the special counsel's indictment of former president donald. trump stay with us. plan. let's find the right investments for your goals okay, great. j.p. morgan wealth management. i'm mark and i live in vero beach, florida

nobody knew they had the corcoran tapes until the new york times advance that in the past weekend.e've learned a lot in just the past two weeks. and andrew has pointed out that they also had heavily researched the circuit split for the possible venue appeal if there were double jeopardy claim, which is very arcane. i had that one purpose, which is to say they have been ahead of a lot of things. they know about her because of the history recorded, alex. they obviously have to have been ready for it. if we bring us in florida, we could get different types of judges than you might see, and they went forward that way. so they certainly have to be prepared with some plan b and see here. >> but it is a corcoran notes that she might actually keep out, and that's the thing -- >> and that is cause for great concern given this indictment. we will take a quick break, we'll have a final thought on the special counsel's indictment of former president donald. trump stay with us. i'm jonathan lawson here to tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, a

cynthia, let me start with you with evan corcoran here. guardian reporting, you've got this former trump lawyer saying that he was told that mar-a-lago's storage room was the only situation where classified documents were stored. he was waved off from searching other locations on the property. if you are jacks mitt, what do you make of that? >> what i make of it is with jack smith has already made of, it is that he has figured out that there is a crime fraud exception and he actually went ahead and got a federal judge to agree with him, and he has the notes. i can't tell you how rare that is. and he obviously is suspicious of the information that corcoran is getting from his clients. and recognized this kind of interesting, there were a bunch of red flags that cork lynn knew he had a problem. first of all, when it came time to write that a statement that said there are no more documents here, he directed it, but he wouldn't sign it. that's a red flag. and then he gives it to another baby lawyer who's had 1 million other problems and even s

corcoran if he had to comply with the subpoena. mr. corcoran told him, yeah, man, you do. jill wine banks, the fact that the attorney/client privilege was pierced in this case already because of the crime fraud exception, which you have seen a lot of smart prosecutors explain, if it's the commission of a crime, you don't get to use the he's my lawyer, he can't talk. what do you make of the fact that are tapes of him telling trump he can't keep the stuff, you have to give it back, this is at the stage where he's about to get his house searched? >> this is, again, an accumulation of evidence mounting to the point where i can't see how you can avoid an indictment. it has to go to trial. it has to be seen by a jury. you have a situation where you have the president on tape, we think. you know, i haven't heard the tape, but based on the reporting, there's a tape where he is saying, i have a classified document so i can't show it to you, which means he knows, a, he has classified documents, and b, he can't show them to anybody and he hasn't declassified them. you have his lawyer

evan corcoran is something that will be suppressed. >> reporter: for special counsel jack smith, he'll be dealing with a jury made up of florida residents, a state trump won in 2016 and 2020. and the heart of the case, the retention of classified documents will create obstacles for prosecutors. >> the government really has to develop a strategy to use the classified documents without making them public. repter: the judge overseeing the case could also present hurdles. aileen cannon, a trump appointee, slowed the fbi's investigation into the documents last summer. smith will also likely have to deal with repeated attacks from donald trump. >> deranged jack smith, and he's a big trump hater. >> reporter: smith is described by colleagues as stoic and unflappable. in the past, he has handled politically sensitive investigations and brought charges against high-profile democrats. norah. >> catherine herridge, thank you. >>> and turning now to the economy, there's more good news in the fight against inflation. the labor department reports the consumer price index grew at an annual rate of ju

trump asked corcoran if he had to supply with the subpoena.ran said he did and the times goes on to give context, quote, the level of detail in the recording again, by this lawyer, is said to have angered and unnerved close aides to trump who are worried it contains direct quotes from sensitive conversations. now this is one of those big stories credit to the times for breaking it, that tells you this is a lot more than what we knew before that this lawyer had been dragged into testify where he can say all kinds of things including i don't see it that way, i don't remember it that way. i didn't take it as an illegal order. that's his testimony or defense of his client, but here you have a contemporaneous voice note. only he knows why he made it and he made it to protect not his client, but himself or like john dean they were going to make him a fall guy. as for donald trump, how can doj possibly charge me who did nothing wrong. greatest witch hunt of all time. jack smith has the evidence. he apparently has the kind of evidence that you don't u

you see a lot of the damn evidence coming from evan corcoran. so when the department of justice got access to evan corcoran's voice notes and notes -- these were copious notes under the theory of cya, because that's what corcoran was doing. he wanted to cover himself in case he were ever charged with anything. it's a treasure trove that details trump's involvement from beginning to end in all of this. my favorite part is where donald trump wanted corcoran to be like hillary clinton's lawyer, who he believe covered up for her, delighted all the email. this is why he ran for president, i'm going to lock you up and put you in jail. now he wants his lawyer to be like hillary clinton's. it's really ironic. >> there's a high turnover rate of his legal team. you saw on friday he removed two of his top legal attorneys. todd blanch, a defense lawyer he hired april after being indicted in manhattan, he will take the lead. you had trustee and rally being removed from the legal team. what's the strategy here? >> the strategy is just to find a lawyer who wil

of prosecutorial attention as two of trump's attorneys have been, one of his current lawyers evan corcoran, and former trump lawyer and fixer michael cohen who was indicted and served jail time. >> brian todd reporting, thank >> brian todd reporting, thank you very much. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

these boxes, to conceal them from corcoran ahead of time before he conducted this search. >> yes, andere in just about an hour or so, the special counsel is going to be making a statement. so this is very unusual. you do not often see this, right? and so what should we be looking for here? what do you think, evan, that this is going to be like? >> i think the importance of jack smith -- i know the justice department and the way that the system operates right now, they're trying to restore normalcy to the department after the last few tumultuous years. and there's this great reluctance for them to speak anything or say anything outside of these court documents. but the importance of jack smith coming out today is that you need to have someone who can explain to the american public this is what we've done, this is what this investigation has done, according to this document the federal bureau of investigation opened a criminal investigation of the former president on march 30th of 2022. so this investigation has been going on since march 30th of last year. and you know, it's important f

corcoran's personal notes quote trump asking "what happens if we don't respond at all or don't play ballhe government's subpoena demanding the documents be returned. >> i think that the testimony of evan corcoran is something that will be suppressed. >> reporter: for special counsel jack smith, he will be dealing with a jury made up of florida residents, a state trump won in 2016 and 2020. and the heart of the case, the retention of classified documents will create obstacles for prosecutors. >> the government really has to develop a strategy to use the classified documents without making them public. >> reporter: the judge overseeing the case could also present hurdles. aileen cannon, a trump appointee, slowed the fbi's investigation into the documents last summer. smith will also likely have to deal with repeated attacks from donald trump. >> deranged jack smith. and he is a big trump hater. >> reporter: smith is described by colleagues as stoic and unflappable. in the past, he has handled politically-sensitive investigations and brought charges against high-profile democrats. norah? >>

we knew very quickly that corcoran had written that. at that point, it was very clear to you in discussing it with us that he's absolutely going to have to explain that. there's no way he won't have to explain that. >> to wrap it in two sentences, this is the original warrant. and it says we think you violated the espionage act. and today that's what's been charged. there's a straight line from that. jack smith hasn't missed yet. the defendant is presumed innocent, but what they said they were looking for is what they charged. >> i want to ask you the role the security footage, which was also in a lot of the filings prior to today played in all this. i have also the numbers of class fewed documents that dribbled back and held back. i want to share that. carol had to do some reporting. no one else is going anywhere. we're going it steek in a quick break. our special coverage continues. more after a quick break. stay with us. more after a quick break stay with us ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ get 2.9% apr for 36 months plus $1,500 purchase allowance on

evan corcoran is not the only former trump lawyer tonight.eam, two of the top attorneys now gone, tom blanche is now leading the thing. trump thinks he is a killer. >> norah: this really places donald trump at the center of the conspiracy. >> reporter: mxey s. atth t president referred to the sensitive material, according to the indictment, and that term, for me, really explains how personal his role in this was. he didn't have these materials because of some clerical mix up or because some lawyers maneuvered him into it. he gave orders to take this material and then store it at mar-a-lago, and then, when the subpoenas came, he had t m bedroom two bhroom. and why did he want the sensitive material for national purpose? he wanted to settle personal scores and to brag. heback. >> reporter: what is extraordinary about the indictment, it starts after the subpoena was issued, which is to say if the subpoena was issued and he handed it over, as his lawyers were arguing, maybe this doesn't happen. >> norah: and robert, the justice department does op

. >> how about evan corcoran's testimony?is former attorney, on -- i think he's still his attorney. >> yes. that will be another matter they'll definitely continue to challenge. i would just emphasize, as juliette and elliot were saying, there are never national security cases that were prosecuted that go super smoothly. always, whenever there's classified information involved, and in this case they've got the 31 documents that i do expect that they would have coordinated with the intelligence community in advance to be able to include them in the indictment -- but national security prosecutions just are complicated and more complex because of the information involved. >> i'm sure donald trump, you're going to want to delay, delay, delay, delay as long as you can. >> but even in a perfect world where a defendant's not being difficult, this is just a complicated area of law. i don't say that lightly. >> right, and also, look. classification is just a status that the government decides to put on it. even if the president could

neither trump nor nauta informed trump's attorney corcoran, then he wanted corcoran to lie. whatever happens to trump, nauta is cooked. >> well, i think they are both cooked. as bill barr said, trump is toast. he is. there's no question that the case laid out, including, i mean, everyone listening to this show should read the indictment. it's an easy read. it includes pictures. you have a picture of a ballroom where the documents are on a stage. you have his bathroom with its chandelier and its boxes of documents. i love the gift that's going around saying, bed, bath, and beyond reasonable doubt. which is the bathroom. i mean, it's such good evidence that no jury can look away from that. and i think that, you know, judge cannon is a danger. there is a risk. and she, as attorney general holder said, she doesn't have the intellectual capacity to handle this case. but she also cannot be a complete idiot, and she knows the 11th circuit is watching her. and they reamed her in the two times they reversed her. it wasn't just a, you made a small mistake. it's, you are an idwrt. i th

and at what point evan corcoran knows that donald trump makes this plucking impression with his handm in the same maybe pluck went out. >> well, not the same thing as having donald trump recorded. i understand those other things that donald trump's made statements. i'm sure the government will try and introduce those against him a trial as admissions. but i guess the piece was a little misleading to suggest they were donald trump's words. they're donald trump's recorded words recorded by a lawyer who speaks to a tape reporting to preserve what -- supposedly said. >> what about the words to the biographer and saying, i have this classified document that i could've classified when i was president but i can't anymore. and it pertains to a possible invasion on iran. that was a recording of the former president? >> right, and that will be evidence that will be introduced against him at trial. >> is that damning evidence do you think? >> my overall sense of this is that this is a very serious case. there is no way of cutting it any other way. they are serious felony charges. -- when the ca

we can do the math. 34 boxes were removed or left out of that storage closet before evan corcoran went back in. >> also, eli, there were questions about why these charges were filed, why we're talking about florida. >> there's so much in the what of the indictment but the where. doj decided to file this in florida. it gives donald trump a favorable venue. his jury pool will be favorably inclined looking at donald trump. the judge is eileen cannon. she's been the subject of a bit of controversy. she made a ruling in favor of donald trump that was then reversed by the court of appeals. so at the moment, she is the judge and i think donald trump's team is going to be happy about that. >> eli, thank you for being with us. outside of the interior design opinions related to bathrooms, when you went through this indictment, what kind of grabbed your attention? what stood out to you? >> i think i looked at it more holistically in that the entire system a little bit stronger. i think jack smith's indictment kind of reflects -- it has a thoroughness, i think, that people can appreciate after wha

now you have evidence ran corcoran. you say corcoran was probably the source of the search warrant after he realized he was being played by trump. that's a theory. we don't know that as fact right now. >> well, i think i'm right because there's no other way -- first of all, to put that into a search warrant, the probable cause for this obstruction had to come from an inside wednesday who laid it out. you don't conduct the search on a former president's residence without having a real solid probable cause. you're not going to put in circumstantial evidence. certainly corcoran was in a position where he had to realize at some point that there were 30 boxes that were hidden from him that he didn't get to look at. so she the logical person that was the inside source that gave this to the fbi. i might also add in terms of lawyers and the reaction to trump and what they've done, you've also got john eastman in the georgia case who also had one of his emails produced to the january 6th committee because of a statement in furth

be fully honest with the fbi and that is extraordinary because we know one of those lawyers, evan corcoran, he is a witness in this case. special counsel jack smith was able to successfully get around attorney/client privilege by convincing a federal judge that his advice may have been used in commission of a crime. so these are his own attorney's words coming back to be used against him in this criminal indictment. it also lays out several potentially incriminating exchanges with his aide walt nauta who is also charged here, they appear to move boxes around to evade the government that is specifically requesting its records back. it's extraordinary. we have been covering this closely and broken so much news but it's clear only our reporting showed us a sliver of the evidence that a special counsel could be presenting to a jury. >> paula reid, thanks as always and great reports. let's bring in cnn's kaitlan collins. the indictment has so many primary source materials, text messages, photographs, testimony contemporaneous notes by his own attorneys. how is that going over in trump world, do

and corcoran is there.-- there's some real quotes there to me resonates with the reporting that corcoran tape recorded these huge notes because -- >> there are quotes throughout this. there's a lot of tape recorders it seems of donald trump's conversations. >> exactly. >> post facto recording of his notes or was he wired? >> i think it wasn't wired. i think it would be very -- for a lawyer to do that -- >> that would not -- the reporting was that he after the fact being concerned about memorializing what the conversations were with his clients on a car ride dictated very extensive notes. >> no wonder with the plucking notion and take them to your hotel room. >> absolutely. i mean, that is -- >> what's so remarkable about all of this is that donald trump had been able to escape criminal liability, civil liability, a lot of legal liability over his time, over his years because he doesn't text message. he doesn't put things on paper. he kind of winks and nods, and what you're seeing here is recordings of him.