Court Action Underscores Peril for Trump in Documents Investigation (Published 2023)

The behind-the-scenes legal fight over obtaining evidence from a lawyer who represented former President Donald J. Trump in the investigation into his handling of classified documents has brought into sharper view where the Justice Department might be headed with the case.

According to the wisps of information that have seeped out of sealed court filings and closed-door hearings, prosecutors believe they have compelling evidence that Mr. Trump obstructed the government's efforts to reclaim the sensitive records and may have even misled his own lawyers.

This theory of the case has not changed much since federal agents obtained a search warrant in August based on three possible crimes, obstruction being one of them. The search turned up hundreds of sensitive government records being kept at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump's heavily trafficked compound in Florida, after his lawyers had earlier assured the Justice Department that all such documents had been returned.

Still, the more recent developments stemming from efforts to force testimony and other evidence from the lawyer, M. Evan Corcoran, in Federal District Court in Washington, indicate that prosecutors have continued to build a case and that the inquiry remains a serious threat to Mr. Trump.

On Wednesday, a federal appeals court weighed in on the matter, ruling that Mr. Corcoran had to give the government what is likely to be dozens of documents related to his work for Mr. Trump as well as return to a grand jury on Friday to answer questions he had previously sought to avoid with assertions of attorney-client privilege.

The appellate ruling effectively let stand the decision of a lower-court judge, Beryl A. Howell, who gave a blunt assessment of the case last week. In a sealed order issued on Friday upholding the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege, Judge Howell noted that prosecutors in the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith, had made "a prima facie showing that the former president committed criminal violations," according to people familiar with the decision.

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