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grand jury

Who is Evan Corcoran, Trump lawyer with outsized role in documents case?

[1/2] Evan Corcoran, an attorney for former President Donald Trump, departs after testifying before a federal grand jury investigating Trump’s handling of classified documents, at U.S. District Court in Washington, U.S., March 24, 2023. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

June 11 (Reuters) – Evan Corcoran, a lawyer hired by Donald Trump to fend off a federal investigation into his handling of sensitive documents, is now a central figure in the U.S. Justice Department’s criminal case against the former president.

The shift from lawyer to potential witness in the case is a sharp turn for Corcoran. The former Republican congressman’s son is described by former colleagues as soft-spoken and diligent, known for his steady presence in the courtroom and an affinity for fly fishing.

Corcoran, 58, was not charged in the indictment unsealed on Friday. It presents him as a key Trump confidant who was deceived by the former president as he allegedly sought to stymie Justice Department efforts to recover classified documents he kept at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after leaving the White House in January 2021.

The 37-count indictment said Trump suggested to Corcoran that he falsely tell the Justice Department that he did not have any sensitive documents to turn over after a May 2022 subpoena.

“Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here?” Trump asked, according to an account by “Trump Attorney 1” detailed in the indictment.

The indictment does not identify Corcoran by name, but a source familiar with the situation told Reuters that he is the lawyer listed as “Trump Attorney 1” in the document.

In an unusual move, Corcoran, a former federal prosecutor, was forced to testify and turn over detailed notes to a grand jury weighing evidence in the Trump documents probe after a U.S. judge ruled he could

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June 12, 2023 by LAW

Fani Willis wants lawyer for Trump fake electors off the case, says there’s conflict

What has Georgia’s Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis been up to? We’ve all been wondering since she said months ago that decisions from her office about its 2020 election interference probe were “imminent.” Well, we got an update this week.

Specifically, there may be some flipping among the so-called fake electors — the people who signed false slates of electors for then-President Donald Trump during the 2020 election — and it’s leading Willis to try and get a state GOP-paid lawyer kicked off the matter.

That lawyer is Kimberly Bourroughs Debrow, who’s been representing 10 of the Georgia Republicans who sought to push Trump into office despite him losing to Joe Biden. According to a filing from Willis on Tuesday, some of them have implicated another in criminal activity (though the filing didn’t specify which elector or what alleged crime or crimes). That led Willis to seek Debrow’s disqualification because, per Willis, her office interviewed some of those electors last week, which revealed not only that some of them are implicating another, but that the defense never conveyed immunity offers to the electors that were broached last year. (Debrow has denied Willis’ allegation.)

But wait. Why is Willis, the prosecutor, getting involved with defense representation? Don’t people have a right to their chosen lawyer if they’re informed about any potential conflict (and if they can afford the lawyer)?

Yes, but not without exception. A lawyer needs to keep their client’s best interests in mind, which can be complicated when a lawyer represents multiple clients. When clients’ interests conflict, that can make it close to impossible for a lawyer to act on one client’s interests without negatively impacting another’s. As Willis has framed the situation in her filing — which, again, Debrow contests — such a conflict appears to be

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April 21, 2023 by LAW

No charges in the fatal death of 19-year-old Buffalo State freshman

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — District Attorney John Flynn announced no charges in the fatal death of 19-year-old Buffalo State freshman, Tyler Lewis, Friday afternoon.

This comes days after his mother, Roquishia Lewis, held her own news conference.

The DA is saying the murder of Tyler Lewis is closed, but there was no arrests made when Tyler was killed.

“I put every piece of evidence in the grand jury,” he says. “I put enough evidence in the grand jury to give a proper picture of what happened here and the grand jury no billed it.”

Tyler’s mom, Roquishia Lewis, says she believes the DA only held the news conference because she sent an email to his office pledging to hold Flynn and investigators accountable with the evidence her private investigator gathered.

“Basically I called them out on it,” the mother says. “ I let them know that I know exactly all the information and evidence I have and their only concern was how I got the information and it’s sad.”

District Attorney John Flynn replies to the mother’s actions.

“The mother of the victim sent an email basically admitting she taped recorded conversations in our office,” Flynn says. “So my instincts are usually right not to get in the weeds with the family was for a good reason.”

The Buff State freshman that majored in business administration was stabbed on October 14th on the grounds of the University at Buffalo’s North Campus.

He went to UB with what he thought were his friends that night.

DA John Flynn says Tyler and the others had a drug deal that went wrong.

The suspect who is said to be a White man between the age of 19 and 22 stabbed Tyler in the chest, in a car.

Flynn says this happened after Tyler

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March 30, 2023 by ATTORNEY

Trump lawyer must turn over documents on classified records, court rules

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court in a sealed order Wednesday directed a lawyer for Donald Trump to turn over to prosecutors documents in the investigation into the former president’s retention of classified records at his Florida estate.

The ruling is a significant win for the Justice Department, which has focused for months not only on the hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, but also on why Trump and his representatives resisted demands to return them to the government. It suggests the court has sided with prosecutors who have argued behind closed doors that Trump was using his legal representation to further a crime.

The order was reflected in a brief online notice by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The case is sealed and none of the parties in the dispute is mentioned by name.

But the details appear to correspond with a secret fight before a lower-court judge over whether Trump lawyer M. Evan Corcoran could be forced to provide documents or give grand jury testimony in the Justice Department special counsel probe into whether Trump mishandled top-secret information at Mar-a-Lago.

Corcoran is regarded as relevant to the investigation in part because last year he drafted a statement to the Justice Department asserting that a “diligent search” for classified documents had been conducted at Mar-a-Lago in response to a subpoena. That claim proved untrue as FBI agents weeks later searched the home with a warrant and found roughly 100 additional documents with classified markings.

Another Trump lawyer, Christina Bobb, told investigators last fall that Corcoran had drafted the letter and asked her to sign it in her role as a designated custodian of Trump’s records.

A Justice Department investigation led by special counsel Jack Smith and his team of

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March 29, 2023 by LAW

Trump Lawyer Ordered to Turn Over Mar-a-Lago Case Documents

(WASHINGTON) — A federal appeals court in a sealed order Wednesday directed a lawyer for Donald Trump to turn over to prosecutors documents in the investigation into the former president’s retention of classified records at his Florida estate.

The ruling is a significant win for the Justice Department, which has focused for months not only on the hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago but also on why Trump and his representatives resisted demands to return them to the government. It suggests the court has sided with prosecutors who have argued behind closed doors that Trump was using his legal representation to further a crime.

The order was reflected in a brief online notice by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The case is sealed, and none of the parties in the dispute is mentioned by name.

But the details appear to correspond with a secret fight before a lower court judge over whether Trump lawyer M. Evan Corcoran could be forced to provide documents or give grand jury testimony in the Justice Department special counsel probe into whether Trump mishandled top-secret information at Mar-a-Lago.

Corcoran is regarded as relevant to the investigation in part because last year he drafted a statement to the Justice Department asserting that a “diligent search” for classified documents had been conducted at Mar-a-Lago in response to a subpoena. That claim proved untrue as FBI agents weeks later searched the home with a warrant and found roughly 100 additional documents with classified markings.

Another Trump lawyer, Christina Bobb, told investigators last fall that Corcoran had drafted the letter and asked her to sign it in her role as a designated custodian of Trump’s records.

A Justice Department investigation led by special counsel Jack Smith and his team

… Read the rest
March 27, 2023 by LAW

Trump lawyer says he shouldn’t be charged in Georgia probe after jury forewoman’s interviews

FormerPresident Donald Trump should not face charges in the Georgian investigation into his election interference because of public statements made by the jury forewoman, his lawyer has been accused.

“Georgia has completely tainted the jury pool, because now you have an entire jury pool of people who believe that there is some crime that President Trump has committed or his allies have committed, but nobody knows what it is,” Christina Bobb told Newsmax on Saturday. “And so they’re trying to get ahead of the game here and try to taint the jury pool, try to lead the public to believe that there’s a crime here, without providing them with an opportunity to defend themselves.”

Jury forewoman Emily Kohrs has created major waves by publicly speaking about Trump and the case in televised interviews. Ms Bobb said the behavior “should mean that there should be no charges.”

“Any defendant – I don’t know who they’re going to try to indict, but any of them, whether it’s the President or any of his allies – all of them have had their constitutional rights violated by this media tour, by the district attorney allowing this craziness,” she said.

Ms Kohrs has spoken – with distinctive energy, excitement and animated facial expressions – about her service as a foreperson on the grand jury hearing evidence in the case of Mr Trump’s effort to overturn his 2020 defeat in Georgia. Some of her comments in particular described the grand jury’s deliberations, including whether they found some witnesses who appeared before them to be credible.

She also explained the grand jury’s decision not to seek testimony from Mr Trump himself, though she was careful not to address any direct prompts to name witnesses or targets of the probe who were recommended for criminal charges.

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February 28, 2023 by LAW

Georgia special grand jury’s final report on potential election meddling by Trump and his allies sparks indictment speculation

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February 24, 2023 by ATTORNEY

Trump Lawyer Hires Own Attorney in Classified Documents Probe

(Reuters) – A lawyer for former President Donald Trump retained an attorney to represent himself as prosecutors step up their inquiry into the handling of sensitive documents at Trump’s Florida residence, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.

Evan Corcoran, who has represented Trump in interactions with the government over presidential records taken to his Mar-a-Lago resort, has turned to Michael Levy, a prominent white-collar lawyer in Washington, according to people familiar with the matter.

Levy was hired by Corcoran’s law firm, Silverman Thompson Slutkin & White, to represent Corcoran in the probe, according to one of the people.

Levy, a principal at the Washington law firm Ellerman Enzinna Levy, declined to comment.

Corcoran has appeared before a grand jury in connection with US Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into classified documents taken to Mar-a-Lago following Trump’s term in office and possible attempts to obstruct that probe. He appeared before the grand jury in early January, according to a person familiar with his appearance.

The New York Times reported this week that US prosecutors are seeking to question Corcoran again, asking a US judge to pierce attorney-client privilege by arguing that they’ve uncovered evidence of a crime.

Corcoran communicated with both the National Archives and US Justice Department last year as the government sought the return of presidential records taken to Mar-a-Lago, according to documents released as part of a lawsuit Trump filed last year seeking an independent review of materials the The FBI seized at Mar-a-Lago.

Another Trump lawyer, Christina Bobb, signed a certification that all classified documents had been returned before the FBI found about 100 additional classified documents during an August 2022 search, according to prosecutors.

Trump has denied wrongdoing and claimed, without offering evidence, that all documents at his residence have been

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February 18, 2023 by ATTORNEY

You know, you might need a lawyer to fight your insurance company

Published dec. 17

Lawyers vs. insurance companies

Insurance change pass |Dec. 15

It’s popular to bash lawyers. I know. I’ve been a lawyer in Florida since 1979. The “solution of the day” in Tallahassee is to disallow attorney’s fees for homeowners who are forced to sue their insurance company to get the insurance company to honor the contract and pay the damage claim. If the Legislature takes away the threat that insurance companies will have to pay for the homeowner’s attorney fees when the homeowner prevails in a lawsuit against the insurer, don’t you think that denials of claims will increase? After all, denials of claims will go right to the bottom line and help improve insurance company profits if there is no punishment for bad behavior. And what is worse is that many people will not have access to the courts if they cannot recover their litigation costs if they win. It is popular to talk about frivolous lawsuits, but they rarely happen because there are already statutes on the books to punish litigants and their attorneys who file frivolous lawsuits in which there is a complete absence of justiciable issues of law or fact. How does stripping away homeowners’ rights help consumers? Are we naive enough to think this will actually lower premiums?

Gary Gibbons, St. Petersburg

Follow the money

Not a quick fix | Editorial, Dec. 13

Maybe the headline should be “Not a substantial fix.” I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the proposed property insurance legislation favors insurance companies. What surprised me was that the DeSantis administration was not able to provide financial information, and there was no requirement for them to do so. Tampa Bay Times staffer Lawrence Mower’s excellent reporting has demonstrated that many of the insurance companies that have bought

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December 20, 2022 by INSURANCE

Alex Murdaugh, a disgraced South Carolina lawyer accused of killing his wife and son, faces new legal trouble

COLUMBIA, SC — Alex Murdaugh, the disgraced attorney accused of killing his wife and son, was indicted Friday by a grand jury in South Carolina on nine counts of tax evasion, adding to the slew of charges he faces in the aftermath of their deaths more than a year ago.

Prosecutors said Murdaugh, 54, made nearly $14 million as a lawyer over nine years, but also stole nearly $7 million from his law firm at the same time.

Through tax returns from 2011 to 2019, the grand jury indictments shed a light on a man who made millions at the law firm his family founded a century ago, but who also had large swings in income and stole about half as much money as he made from Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick.

The latest indictments bring the total number of charges against the disgraced attorney to more than 100.

Murdaugh will be tried in murdaugh-murder-trial-date-set/”late January on murder charges in the June 2021 shooting deaths of his wife Maggie and their son Paul at the family’s home in Colleton County. Prosecutors have said they will seek life in prison if he is convicted.

Murdaugh’s lawyers adamantly deny he had any role in the killings, but they have acknowledged his role in taking money from clients.

Nine counts of willful attempts to evade or defeat a tax were added to Murdaugh’s charges Friday. Prosecutors said he dodged nearly $487,000 in state income taxes. He faces up to five years in prison on each count if convicted.

Most of the other charges against Murdaugh deal with either stealing $8.8 million in lawsuit settlement money from badly injured clients, or families of people killed in wrecks or on the job, as well as a drug ring and money laundering scheme,

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December 20, 2022 by LAW
December 2023
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