WASHINGTON — Evan Corcoran, a member of former President Donald Trump’s legal team, has stopped working on the federal criminal investigation into alleged mishandling of classified documents in light of his recent appearance before a grand jury, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Corcoran went before a federal grand jury in Washington in late March after he and Trump unsuccessfully argued to stop Justice Department Special Jack Smith’s office from compelling him to comply with a subpoena in the documents probe.
His recusal is related to attorney ethics rules that broadly bar lawyers from working on a trial where they’re likely to be a witness and that deal with conflicts of interest, according to the person, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
Corcoran will continue to represent Trump in other matters, the person said, including the second investigation being run out of Smith’s office, which is exploring whether Trump or his allies committed crimes in seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Corcoran is one of five lawyers working jointly on the two federal probes.
The recusal was reported earlier by The Washington Post.
Corcoran and his attorney Michael Levy didn’t immediately return a request for comment on Saturday.
Tim Parlatore, another Trump attorney, declined to confirm Corcoran’s recusal but provided a statement indicating Corcoran was still doing work for Trump: “The legal team handling all matters involving the special counsel — myself, James Trusty, John Rowley, Lindsey Halligan, and Evan Corcoran is intact and we continue to work closely with Evan as we do with the entire team to protect our client.”
Corcoran, a former federal prosecutor, had represented Trump in connection with the classified documents issue well before the FBI searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate last August and seized thousands of pages of government records, including several hundred with classified markings, according to the government. That work included coordinating Trump’s response to a May 2022 grand jury subpoena for classified material at the Florida resort.
Corcoran had appeared before the Mar-a-Lago grand jury in January. He and Trump objected when prosecutors sought additional information about matters that he and Trump argued were covered by legal privileges for an attorney’s work on behalf of a client.
It’s unknown what exactly Corcoran told the grand jury during his appearance, and whether his testimony could help or hurt Trump in a future trial if prosecutors do press charges.
