Trump appeal effort to keep Jack Smith from accessing his attorney's docs and emails DENIED

[bigtree]

Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney
NEW: Significant win for special counsel Jack SMITH.

Appeals court panel rejects bid by Trump team to prevent Smith from accessing attorney-client privileged docs that a lower-court judge ruled contained likely evidence of a crime.

Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney 2h
BREAKING: The appeals court has DENIED effort by Trump team to block Judge Howell's order turning over *documents* to special counsel Jack SMITH's team.

Details are under seal.

Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney 1h
It’s unclear at the moment if Trump will seek Supreme Court review, but he may not have much time to make that decision. Last time the same sequence of events played out, Marc Short testified the next day.

Politico:

The ruling effectively permits the Justice Department to circumvent Trump’s attorney-client privilege after a lower-court judge found that the documents likely contain evidence of a crime. That finding by U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell on Friday triggers the “crime-fraud” exception to the usual attorney-client secrecy, the judge ruled.

The appeals court’s full order was not released, so it was not immediately clear whether Corcoran would be required to testify in addition to providing documents. But a summary of the D.C. Circuit’s order indicated that prosecutors had prevailed and that stay requests from the Trump camp were denied.

It’s also unclear whether the panel provided any time for Trump to challenge the decision before the full bench of the appeals court or to seek relief from the Supreme Court.

Howell ruled on Friday that Trump’s attorney-client privilege had to yield to the grand jury’s need for Corcoran’s testimony and records, given evidence that the attorney had been used to advance a crime. Smith’s probe is exploring potential obstruction of justice of the classified-documents investigation, as well as illegal retention of classified information and theft of government records, according to court filings.

The appeals court’s order on Wednesday — from Judges Cornelia Pillard, J. Michelle Childs and Florence Pan — didn’t identify Corcoran or the case at issue but made clear that the government was on the winning side of the case in Howell’s court and in the appeals court’s new ruling.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/22/trump-court-rejects-special-counsel-00088403

[sheshe2]

1. DENIED