Trump seeks to bar use of grand jury testimony from ex-White House lawyers in special counsel probe: report
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump are trying to block the use of testimony from two former White House lawyers in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, ABC News reports.
Trump’s lawyers are trying to bar sealed grand jury testimony from former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, ex-deputy Patrick Philbin and former Trump lawyer Eric Herschmann.
“Cipollone was one of the few aides with Trump during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, and is said to have significant insight into events before, leading up to, and after the attack,” according to the report. He reportedly told Trump the former president could face legal jeopardy stemming from the Capitol attack.
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“Both Cipollone and Philbin were part of a Jan. 3, 2021, Oval Office meeting where Trump mulled replacing then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen with Jeff Clark, a Trump loyalist who had vowed to use the DOJ to investigate alleged 2020 election irregularities,” ABC News reports.
A source close to Trump told ABC News “the DOJ is continuously stepping far outside the standard norms in attempting to destroy the long-accepted, long-held, Constitutionally based standards of attorney-client privilege and executive privilege.”
ABC News reports:
Prosecutors in Smith's office have urged an appeals court to reject Trump's efforts, arguing that the matter is moot given that the three men have already spoken to the grand jury, the sources said in regard to the sealed testimony.
