quote, the notification to trump s team by prosecutors from the office of the special counsel jack smith was the clearest signal yet that the former president is likely to face charges in the investigation. the notice suggested that prosecutors working for mr. smith had largely completed their investigation and were moving toward indictment. as politico reports, that letter from jack smith s office telling trump he s a target signalled special counsel jack smith is on the verge of a charging decision which appears to be, quote, days, if not hours, away. and then there s this brand new reporting from cnn today that a top former white house official tells cnn he testified to federal prosecutors that donald trump knew exactly how the declassification process works. quote, a key former white house official was interviewed earlier
that when a client uses a lawyer, it doesn t have to be a conspiracy. it can literally be the client asking the lawyer for advice that they can then use. turned it a crime. that the relationship no longer blocks that evidence from scrutiny by prosecutors. that s what s happened here. to that point, to elaborate on what you re saying earlier, devin, this can show what andrew weissmann referred to as the men s rail, his intent and all this. which seems to be the key, right? the piercing of the attorney client privilege, reveals the cooperation, or lack thereof, between the client and his lawyer. the fact that trump may have obfuscated or down light lied to evan corcoran. and presumably, there are other lawyers in the mix, who told trump, this is what you need to do. this is why you need to return these documents. this is how the declassification process works. there s probably not just one lawyer here that can attest to the trump s state of mind, as a concerned, but given the document
declassification process works. there s probably not just one lawyer here that can attest to the trump s state of mind, as a concerned, but given the document back to the doj? right, that just a really important factual point in this case, it s important remember, vertically with evan corcoran. evan corcoran has brought brought into this late. after other lawyers talk to trump about this. evan corcoran, comes into this cold got a lot of this from the former president could ve evan corcoran it at the mercy. of trump s lawyers of events. when he spotted late. and i think it s part of the reason why his notes are so important. and part of the reason why what evan corcoran is told maybe significantly different than the facts, because he is new to the issue. there s another piece of this that i think is important
what andrew wiseman referred to as a mens rea. the piercing of the attorney client privilege the fact that trump may have obfuscated or down right outright lied to evan corcoran, and presumably there are other lawyers in the mix who told trump this is what you need to do, this is why you need to return these documents, this is how the declassification process works. i mean there s probably not just one lawyer here that can attest to trump s state of mind as it concerned the document giving the documents back to the doj. right, and that gets to a really important factual point in this case particularly with evan corcoran. evan corcoran is brought into this late after other lawyers have talked to trump about this. so evan corcoran in a way comes into this cold and has to get lot of information from the former president. that puts evan corcoran sort of at the mercy of trump s version
to hold on to ain his residence, they re declassified to anyone. that would be subject anyone to be able to deploy. that s not how the declassification process works, even if that s the claim that he s going to try to make. and then he s throwing spaghetti at the wall sort of legal process, if trump is making here is just make whatever argument will essentially make this case, whether or not it actually has much to do with the law. because but the judge will because president trump s base just like any average america might not know how classification of documents would work but, the judge will. and now that the department of justice is laying all this at what position s up but the judge in. it can say here is what we meticulously did, how can the judge argue yes we re gonna need a third party? shouldn t there be some sort of level of trust in the department of justice? it s a good question. i think that the public influences going to have certainly going to play a role here, as to w