corcoran, one of the most crucial witnesses in the investigation. katelyn polantz reports. reporter: the justice department and special counsel jack smith have won a monumental court decision on friday in their investigation into donald trump and his handling of classified records. in this decision that they got under seal from federal judge beryl howell in the d.c. district court on friday, that decision says that conversations between trump s attorney, evan corcoran, and donald trump himself may have been part of the commissioning of a crime. so that s what a federal judge is now agreeing with the justice department on that. that is a really, really significant thing. the sort of legal opinion that s going to be remembered and give momentum to not just the special counsel s investigation but also be remembered for presidencies to come. what the practical impact of this is that evan corcoran, the
little-known conservative lawyer laying out a plan to overturn the 2020 election. cnn s katelyn polantz reports. reporter: the new york times has unearthed a memo from a conservative lawyer who was speaking directly to donald trump in december 2020 about what trump could do with the presidency to block the election result. so what s important about this is that it gives us a little bit more knowledge about what was happening, what donald trump was hearing, what he was thinking, what he may have been planning in late 2020 after the election leading up to january 6th. so william olson is the lawyer here. he s writing a memo. the new york times has posted it publicly. in it he says he and trump spoke on christmas day, they had a discussion. he s following up and says, you know, i want to walk through what my suggestions are again to tell you that i know you too, donald trump, will be following up on as well. he says that the lawyers around trump are not serving him well as president
they put it, were unanswered. chaos could kin. w continue. will ripley, thanks so much. now to the investigation into the january 6 insurrection at the u.s. capitol. we re just days away from the committee s last planned hearing and new developments are already piling up including details about some of the fringe figures who were in contact with former president trump. on saturday the new york times revealed a stunning memo from a little known conservative lawyer laying out a plan to overturn the 2020 election. katelyn polantz reports. reporter: the new york times has unearthed a memo from a conservative lawyer who was speaking directly to donald trump in december 2020 about what trump could do with the presidency to block the election result. so what is important about this is it gives us a little bit more knowledge about what was happening, what donald trump was hearing, what he was thinking, what he may have been planning in late 2020 after the election