Politics

By Nupur Anand and Trevor Hunnicutt

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. first lady Jill Biden on Monday embarked on a fundraising tour to build up President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign coffers, telling a well-heeled Manhattan crowd of nearly 50 people that her husband “knows how to get things done.”

The event was hosted at the Upper East Side home of Barry Ginsburg and his wife Merle, whose wealth comes from real estate and other ventures.

Jill Biden is set to be a key messenger for her husband on the campaign trail, including at important stops to raise hundreds of millions from the wealthy in the coming months for what may be the priciest U.S. election in history.

The first lady said that the president, who had a root canal procedure on Monday, asked his supporters to be “optimistic” when she visited him before embarking on the fundraising campaign.

“Tell them to be optimistic, because I am, so let’s finish the job,” she said, relaying the president’s message at the event attended by Reuters.

She is scheduled for two fundraising events in San Francisco on Tuesday and another for donors in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

President Biden raised more than $1 billion in 2020 and faces questions from donors about whether the 80-year-old should pass the torch to younger leadership.

“We are grateful for your support, but we need to keep this momentum going,” Jill Biden said while recounting the administration’s effort in creating 13 million jobs, boosting bipartisan cooperation and closing a debt ceiling agreement before a default.

The campaign, which officially launched on April 25, plans to ramp up fundraising events. President Biden is expected to hold his own events with large donors in California and Illinois, starting next week.

Advisers believe a strong cash haul will set Biden, who is almost certain to get the Democratic nomination, apart from a Republican Party that is picking its candidate from a large field that includes front-runner Donald Trump, the former president defeated by Biden in 2020.

Biden aides are keeping a close eye on June 30, when quarterly fundraising books close. Campaigns will announce these fundraising tallies in mid-July, and the figure will be a sign of how well Biden’s money-raising efforts are going.

So far, his campaign has only held a handful of events, largely for donors and volunteers. Two fundraising events Biden held last month in New York raised more than $3 million, according to a person familiar with those totals.

(Reporting by Nupur Anand in New York and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Editing by Jamie Freed)

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By Jack Queen

MIAMI (Reuters) -Former President Donald Trump arrived in Miami on Monday to face federal criminal charges as a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found the case had not dented his reelection hopes.

Trump is scheduled to be in a Miami federal courthouse on Tuesday at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) for an initial appearance in the case.

Accused of unlawfully keeping U.S. national-security documents and lying to officials who tried to recover them, Trump has proclaimed his innocence and vowed to continue his campaign to regain the presidency in a November 2024 election.

Trump, who turns 77 on Wednesday, touched down in Miami at 2:54 p.m. (1854 GMT) in a private jet with his name emblazoned on the side.

Supporters gathered outside a nearby golf club he owns, where he was due to stay the night.

“I HOPE THE ENTIRE COUNTRY IS WATCHING WHAT THE RADICAL LEFT ARE DOING TO AMERICA,” he wrote on his Truth Social social-media platform before departing from New Jersey.

Trump’s legal woes have not affected his popularity among Republican voters.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday found that 81% of Republicans thought the charges were politically motivated. The poll also found Trump continues to lead his rivals for the party’s presidential nomination by a wide margin.

Some 43% of self-identified Republicans said Trump was their preferred candidate, compared to 22% who picked Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. In early May, Trump led DeSantis 49% to 19%, but that was before DeSantis formally entered the race.

Trump spoke to an enthusiastic crowd in Georgia over the weekend and his campaign said he would make a statement on Tuesday night, when he returns to New Jersey.

With memories fresh of the Jan. 6, 2021, assault by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol, officials have raised security concerns.

Miami police chief Manny Morales said the city was planning for a crowd size of up to 50,000 people and would close roads in the downtown area if necessary.

Special Counsel Jack Smith accuses Trump of taking thousands of papers containing some of the nation’s most sensitive national-security secrets when he left the White House in January 2021 and storing them in a haphazard manner at his Mar-a-Lago Florida estate, according to a grand jury indictment released last week.

Photos included in the indictment show boxes of documents stored on a ballroom stage, in a bathroom and strewn across a storage-room floor.

The indictment alleges Trump lied to officials who tried to get them back.

Trump is the first former or current president to face criminal charges, but legal experts say that does not prevent him from running for president – or taking office even if he is found guilty.

Legal experts, including Trump’s former attorney general William Barr, say the case is a strong one. The charges include violations of the Espionage Act, which criminalizes unauthorized possession of defense information, and conspiracy to obstruct justice, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Any federal trial in Florida may not take place until after the November 2024 presidential election. Trump also is due to go on trial in March 2024 in a separate case in New York state court, stemming from a hush-money payment to a porn star.

Trump accuses Democratic President Joe Biden of orchestrating the federal case to undermine his campaign. Biden has kept his distance from the case and declines to comment on it.

Smith, the special counsel leading the prosecution, is given a greater degree of independence than other Justice Department prosecutors, to try to minimize political factors. He is also investigating Trump’s effort to overturn his 2020 loss to Biden.

(Additional reporting by Susan Heavey, Nathan Layne, Julia Harte, Doina Chiacu and Jacqueline Thomsen; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Howard Goller)

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By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached an agreement on Monday with an insurgent group of Republican conservative hardliners that will allow legislation to move forward this week, following a standoff that had paralyzed the chamber for days.

But the lawmakers, including members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, warned that they could block other measures in the House of Representatives, unless they see progress toward a “power-sharing” deal with McCarthy that would bolster their influence, particularly over spending.

“We’re concerned about the economic security of this country, and to that end we will work. If we don’t have that, there are going to be fights,” Representative Ralph Norman told reporters after he and several other members of the House of Representatives met with McCarthy.

The same lawmakers blocked legislation last week in protest over a bipartisan debt ceiling bill that passed the House on May 31 without spending cuts they had demanded.

“We had a very productive meeting tonight,” McCarthy told reporters after the meeting. “Everybody’s attitude in the room was how do we move forward to where we were.”

The House is scheduled to begin voting on delayed Republican bills on Tuesday, starting with a floor rule governing debate and votes on passage. The delayed bills would shield gas stoves from new federal regulations and give Congress the ability to block other new federal rules.

Under an agreement with McCarthy, the rule will also allow a floor vote on a firearms measure to repeal a federal ban on pistol braces that conservatives strongly support.

Norman and other hardliners told reporters they would press for additional spending cuts in 12 appropriations bills that Congress will try to enact by Oct. 1 to keep federal agencies operating during the 2024 fiscal year.

The lawmakers also want to eliminate an estimated 1,100 programs that have not been reauthorized by Congress, saying the programs represent $100 billion in spending.

McCarthy’s debt ceiling compromise with Democratic President Joe Biden set limits that would keep discretionary spending roughly flat for the next fiscal year, which begins on Oct. 1.

But the hardliners are also looking to expand their influence over the House Republican agenda.

“We want to work on an accountability regime and a power sharing agreement,” said Representative Matt Gaetz, one of the hardliners. “We want to see House conservatives in a position to be able to enforce the agreements that we all make.”

Continued Republican in-fighting could complicate passage of key legislation later this year on defense and agriculture as well as spending.

With a narrow majority of 222-213, McCarthy can afford to lose no more than four Republican votes on any measure that faces uniform opposition from Democrats.

Asked how he would be able to keep the House on an even keel with hardliners ready to block measures, McCarthy replied: “I just wake up every morning, pray for the patience of Job and find a solution.”

(Reporting by David Morgan in WashingtonEditing by Andy Sullivan, Mary Milliken and Matthew Lewis)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached an agreement on Monday with an insurgent group of Republican conservative hardliners that will allow legislation to move forward this week, following a standoff that had paralyzed the chamber for days.

But the lawmakers, including members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, warned that they could block other measures in the House of Representatives, unless they see progress toward a “power-sharing” deal with McCarthy that would bolster their influence, particularly over spending.

“We’re concerned about the economic security of this country, and to that end we will work. If we don’t have that, there are going to be fights,” Representative Ralph Norman told reporters after he and several other members of the House of Representatives met with McCarthy.

The same lawmakers blocked legislation last week in protest over a bipartisan debt ceiling bill that passed the House on May 31 without spending cuts they had demanded.

“We had a very productive meeting tonight,” McCarthy told reporters after the meeting. “Everybody’s attitude in the room was how do we move forward to where we were.”

The House is scheduled to begin voting on delayed Republican bills on Tuesday, starting with a floor rule governing debate and votes on passage. The delayed bills would shield gas stoves from new federal regulations and give Congress the ability to block other new federal rules.

Under an agreement with McCarthy, the rule will also allow a floor vote on a firearms measure to repeal a federal ban on pistol braces that conservatives strongly support.

Norman and other hardliners told reporters they would press for additional spending cuts in 12 appropriations bills that Congress will try to enact by Oct. 1 to keep federal agencies operating during the 2024 fiscal year.

The lawmakers also want to eliminate an estimated 1,100 programs that have not been reauthorized by Congress, saying the programs represent $100 billion in spending.

McCarthy’s debt ceiling compromise with Democratic President Joe Biden set limits that would keep discretionary spending roughly flat for the next fiscal year, which begins on Oct. 1.

But the hardliners are also looking to expand their influence over the House Republican agenda.

“We want to work on an accountability regime and a power sharing agreement,” said Representative Matt Gaetz, one of the hardliners. “We want to see House conservatives in a position to be able to enforce the agreements that we all make.”

Continued Republican in-fighting could complicate passage of key legislation later this year on defense and agriculture as well as spending.

With a narrow majority of 222-213, McCarthy can afford to lose no more than four Republican votes on any measure that faces uniform opposition from Democrats.

Asked how he would be able to keep the House on an even keel with hardliners ready to block measures, McCarthy replied: “I just wake up every morning, pray for the patience of Job and find a solution.”

(Reporting by David Morgan in WashingtonEditing by Andy Sullivan, Mary Milliken and Matthew Lewis)

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By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives will reconvene in an atmosphere of political uncertainty on Monday, as Republican hardline conservatives clash with Speaker Kevin McCarthy and spoil for a new fight over federal government spending.

Lawmakers are due to return to Washington for the first time since 11 Republicans, including members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, paralyzed the chamber floor for days last week, in protest over a bipartisan debt ceiling bill that passed the House on May 31 without some of the government spending cuts they had demanded.

“What you saw last week was out of total frustration among all of us. And we’re actually more livid now,” Representative Ralph Norman, a leading conservative, told Reuters.

It was not clear whether the hardline Republicans would continue to use parliamentary procedures to stymie legislation, as they press for an as-yet undefined gesture from McCarthy to assuage their concerns.

The House is scheduled this week to consider Republican messaging bills that were delayed by the standoff. The bills would bar new federal regulation of gas stoves and make other regulations subject to congressional approval.

Lawmakers will also consider a bill that would repeal a federal firearms ban on pistol braces, which hardliners say Republican leaders initially pulled as punishment for opposition to the debt ceiling package. Party leaders deny the claim.

“We’ll be back. We’ll be voting,” Representative Tom Emmer, the chamber’s No. 3 Republican, said in an interview.

Sustained opposition from a small group of hardliners could leave McCarthy’s narrow 222-213 majority vulnerable to party infighting, potentially complicating passage of key legislation on appropriations, defense authorization and agriculture and even empowering House Democrats.

McCarthy can afford to lose no more than four Republican votes on any measure that faces uniform opposition from Democrats.

His debt ceiling compromise with Democratic President Joe Biden set limits that would keep discretionary government spending roughly flat for the current fiscal year and fiscal 2024, which begins on Oct. 1.

Norman and other conservatives want 12 appropriations bills that Congress will try to pass in coming months to contain deeper spending cuts included in a Republican debt ceiling bill that passed the House in April.

“Our motive is what everybody knows: the country cannot continue this path of total recklessness in spending,” Norman said.

But moderate Republicans warned that hardball tactics could backfire on conservatives if party infighting forces Republican leaders to rely on Democratic votes to move critical legislation.

“The only bills that will pass will be bipartisan bills, which is the last thing these guys want,” said Representative Don Bacon, a leading centrist Republican.

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Mary Milliken and Paul Simao)

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By Nathan Layne and Susan Heavey

(Reuters) – Former President Donald Trump flies to Miami on Monday to face criminal charges of unlawfully keeping U.S. national-security documents and lying to officials who tried to recover them, in a case that so far has powered rather than hampered his re-election hopes.

Trump is scheduled to appear in a Miami federal courthouse on Tuesday at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) for an initial appearance in the case. He has proclaimed his innocence and has vowed to continue his campaign to regain the presidency in the 2024 presidential election.

Trump, who turns 77 on Wednesday, said he would fly from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, to another golf club he owns outside of Miami, where his supporters were gathering for a noon rally.

“We must all be STRONG and DEFEAT the Communists, Marxists, and Radical Left Lunatics that are systematically destroying our Country,” he wrote on his Truth Social social-media platform.

His legal woes have yet to dent his popularity among Republican voters, and opinion polls show him far ahead of his rivals for the party’s presidential nomination. So far, they have largely sided with him.

He spoke to an enthusiastic crowd in Georgia over the weekend and his campaign said he would make a statement on Tuesday night, when he returns to New Jersey.

With memories fresh of the Jan. 6, 2021, assault by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol, officials have raised security concerns. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, a Republican, was due to discuss security at a 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) press conference.

Special Counsel Jack Smith accuses Trump of taking thousands of papers containing some of the nation’s most sensitive national-security secrets when he left the White House in January 2021 and storing them in a haphazard manner at his Mar-a-Lago Florida estate, according to a grand jury indictment released last week.

Photos included in the indictment show boxes of documents stored on a ballroom stage, in a bathroom and strewn across a storage-room floor.

The indictment alleges Trump lied to officials who tried to get them back.

Trump is the first former or current president to face criminal charges, but legal experts say that does not prevent him from running for president – or taking office even if he is found guilty.

Legal experts, including Trump’s former attorney general William Barr, say the case is a strong one. The charges include violations of the Espionage Act, which criminalizes unauthorized possession of defense information, and conspiracy to obstruct justice, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Any federal trial in Florida may not take place until after the November 2024 presidential election. Trump also is due to go on trial in March 2024 in a separate case in New York state court, stemming from a hush-money payment to a porn star.

Trump accuses Democratic President Joe Biden of orchestrating the case to undermine his campaign. Biden has kept his distance from the case and declines to comment on it.

Smith, the special counsel leading the prosecution, is given a greater degree of independence than other Justice Department prosecutors, to try to minimize political factors. He is also investigating Trump’s effort to overturn his 2020 loss to Biden.

(Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu and Jacqueline Thomsen; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Howard Goller)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Don’t expect President Joe Biden to comment about the 37-count indictment against Donald Trump that accuses the former president of risking some of the country’s most sensitive security secrets after leaving the White House in 2021.

Administration officials plan to maintain their silence on the Trump indictment, a reflection of Biden’s view that no president should interfere with the Justice Department, administration sources said. Given that Trump is Biden’s chief rival in the 2024 presidential race, the campaign should proceed carefully in any mention of the charges, some political experts say.

Many fellow Republicans that are challenging Trump in 2024 have rebuked the Justice Department, not Trump, over the documents, and accused Biden of “weaponizing” the department, even though Trump’s indictment was handed down by a grand jury.

So far, Biden’s campaign has not mentioned the indictment. On Saturday it tweeted about infrastructure.

“Let me just say that silence is the best response,” said Robert Reich, a former labor secretary under President Bill Clinton and professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Going forward, the Biden campaign’s best strategy is simply to encourage people to read the indictment, said Jeremi Suri, a historian and presidential scholar at the University of Texas at Austin, while circulating comments from Republicans like Trump’s former attorney general, who said Sunday Trump was “toast” if the charges are proven true.

The campaign should also remind the public that the indictment came from the people of Florida in a grand jury, not the Biden administration, Suri said.

“They should do everything they can to look like they’re not politicizing this while politicizing this,” he said.

Biden declined to answer shouted questions about the indictment in Washington on Saturday when he left the Catholic church where he worships, heading straight to his waiting limousine and skipping his customary wave to waiting reporters. On Friday he said he had not spoken to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and had no plans to do so.

Even speaking off the record, many Biden officials carefully avoided giving their opinion about the 37 charges Trump faces over his handling of classified documents. And Democrats in Congress close to Biden have stressed the rule of law rather then using the occasion to take jabs at Trump.

“It is a sad day for a former president of the United States to be federally criminally charged but the basis of the rule of law in our democracy is that no man is over the rule of law. I remain confident that he will get the due process of law to which he is entitled,” Delaware Senator Chris Coons said.

Biden has often criticized Trump’s policies and the extremism of his followers without naming Trump himself, a strategy political experts said in the past appeals to Americans exhausted by the chaos of the previous administration.

Biden, a Democrat, won the presidency in 2020 by directly attacking Trump, promising to restore what he called the “soul of America” after his predecessor’s tumultuous four years in office.

As a former longtime chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden was so disturbed by Trump’s repeated attempts to influence and attack the Justice Department while in office that it was one of his motivations for running for the presidency in 2020, one administrative source said.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Heather Timmons in Washington; Editing by Mark Porter)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives will reconvene in an atmosphere of political uncertainty on Monday, as Republican hardline conservatives clash with Speaker Kevin McCarthy and spoil for a new fight over federal government spending.

Lawmakers are due to return to Washington for the first time since 11 Republicans, including members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, paralyzed the chamber floor for days last week, in protest over a bipartisan debt ceiling bill that passed the House on May 31 without some of the government spending cuts they had demanded.

“What you saw last week was out of total frustration among all of us. And we’re actually more livid now,” Representative Ralph Norman, a leading conservative, told Reuters.

It was not clear whether the hardline Republicans would continue to use parliamentary procedures to stymie legislation, as they press for an as-yet undefined gesture from McCarthy to assuage their concerns.

The House is scheduled this week to consider Republican messaging bills that were delayed by the standoff. The bills would bar new federal regulation of gas stoves and make other regulations subject to congressional approval.

Lawmakers will also consider a bill that would repeal a federal firearms ban on pistol braces, which hardliners say Republican leaders initially pulled as punishment for opposition to the debt ceiling package. Party leaders deny the claim.

“We’ll be back. We’ll be voting,” Representative Tom Emmer, the chamber’s No. 3 Republican, said in an interview.

Sustained opposition from a small group of hardliners could leave McCarthy’s narrow 222-213 majority vulnerable to party infighting, potentially complicating passage of key legislation on appropriations, defense authorization and agriculture and even empowering House Democrats.

McCarthy can afford to lose no more than four Republican votes on any measure that faces uniform opposition from Democrats.

His debt ceiling compromise with Democratic President Joe Biden set limits that would keep discretionary government spending roughly flat for the current fiscal year and fiscal 2024, which begins on Oct. 1.

Norman and other conservatives want 12 appropriations bills that Congress will try to pass in coming months to contain deeper spending cuts included in a Republican debt ceiling bill that passed the House in April.

“Our motive is what everybody knows: the country cannot continue this path of total recklessness in spending,” Norman said.

But moderate Republicans warned that hardball tactics could backfire on conservatives if party infighting forces Republican leaders to rely on Democratic votes to move critical legislation.

“The only bills that will pass will be bipartisan bills, which is the last thing these guys want,” said Representative Don Bacon, a leading centrist Republican.

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Mary Milliken and Paul Simao)

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By Andrea Shalal and Heather Timmons

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Don’t expect U.S. President Joe Biden to comment about the 37-count indictment against Donald Trump that accuses the former president of risking some of the country’s most sensitive security secrets after leaving the White House in 2021.

Administration officials plan to maintain their silence on the Trump indictment, a reflection of Biden’s view that no president should interfere with the Justice Department, administration sources said. Given that Trump is Biden’s chief rival in the 2024 presidential race, the campaign should proceed carefully in any mention of the charges, some political experts say.

Many fellow Republicans that are challenging Trump in 2024 have rebuked the Justice Department, not Trump, over the documents, and accused Biden of “weaponizing” the department, even though Trump’s indictment was handed down by a grand jury.

So far, Biden’s campaign has not mentioned the indictment. On Saturday it tweeted about infrastructure.

“Let me just say that silence is the best response,” said Robert Reich, a former labor secretary under President Bill Clinton and professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Going forward, the Biden campaign’s best strategy is simply to encourage people to read the indictment, said Jeremi Suri, a historian and presidential scholar at the University of Texas at Austin, while circulating comments from Republicans like Trump’s former attorney general, who said Sunday Trump was “toast” if the charges are proven true.

The campaign should also remind the public that the indictment came from the people of Florida in a grand jury, not the Biden administration, Suri said.

“They should do everything they can to look like they’re not politicizing this while politicizing this,” he said.

Biden declined to answer shouted questions about the indictment in Washington on Saturday when he left the Catholic church where he worships, heading straight to his waiting limousine and skipping his customary wave to waiting reporters. On Friday he said he had not spoken to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and had no plans to do so.

Even speaking off the record, many Biden officials carefully avoided giving their opinion about the 37 charges Trump faces over his handling of classified documents. And Democrats in Congress close to Biden have stressed the rule of law rather then using the occasion to take jabs at Trump.

“It is a sad day for a former president of the United States to be federally criminally charged but the basis of the rule of law in our democracy is that no man is over the rule of law. I remain confident that he will get the due process of law to which he is entitled,” Delaware Senator Chris Coons said.

Biden has often criticized Trump’s policies and the extremism of his followers without naming Trump himself, a strategy political experts said in the past appeals to Americans exhausted by the chaos of the previous administration.

Biden, a Democrat, won the presidency in 2020 by directly attacking Trump, promising to restore what he called the “soul of America” after his predecessor’s tumultuous four years in office.

As a former longtime chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden was so disturbed by Trump’s repeated attempts to influence and attack the Justice Department while in office that it was one of his motivations for running for the presidency in 2020, one administrative source said.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Heather Timmons in Washington; Editing by Mark Porter)

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By Andrew Goudsward

(Reuters) – Evan Corcoran, a lawyer hired by Donald Trump to fend off a federal investigation into his handling of sensitive documents, is now a central figure in the U.S. Justice Department’s criminal case against the former president.

The shift from lawyer to potential witness in the case is a sharp turn for Corcoran. The former Republican congressman’s son is described by former colleagues as soft-spoken and diligent, known for his steady presence in the courtroom and an affinity for fly fishing.

Corcoran, 58, was not charged in the indictment unsealed on Friday. It presents him as a key Trump confidant who was deceived by the former president as he allegedly sought to stymie Justice Department efforts to recover classified documents he kept at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after leaving the White House in January 2021.

The 37-count indictment said Trump suggested to Corcoran that he falsely tell the Justice Department that he did not have any sensitive documents to turn over after a May 2022 subpoena.

“Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here?” Trump asked, according to an account by “Trump Attorney 1” detailed in the indictment.

The indictment does not identify Corcoran by name, but a source familiar with the situation told Reuters that he is the lawyer listed as “Trump Attorney 1” in the document.

In an unusual move, Corcoran, a former federal prosecutor, was forced to testify and turn over detailed notes to a grand jury weighing evidence in the Trump documents probe after a U.S. judge ruled he could not shield his communications with Trump.

Communications between lawyers and clients are normally protected under the legal doctrine of attorney-client privilege.

However, a U.S. judge in March ruled that U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith could overcome that privilege, determining that Corcoran’s advice may have been used to further or cover up a crime, media reports said.

Trump has denied wrongdoing and claims, without offering evidence, that all documents at the resort had been declassified. He has accused prosecutors of being biased against him.

An attorney for Corcoran declined to comment.

CORCORAN ‘UNFLAPPABLE AND EVEN-KEELED’

“Unflappable and even-keeled are the words that come to mind,” said Douglas Gansler, a former Democratic Maryland attorney general who worked with Corcoran early in his legal career. He described Corcoran as someone who “holds his cards close to the vest.”

A former assistant U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., Corcoran moved to private practice in 2000. He handled business cases and kept a relatively low profile until former Trump White House adviser and conservative firebrand Steve Bannon hired him in 2021 to defend against contempt of Congress charges.

Bannon was found guilty last year for defying a subpoena from the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. He is appealing that conviction.

Trump, who has a history of cycling through attorneys, turned to Corcoran in 2022 after the FBI began investigating boxes containing classified information that Trump’s aides had turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration.

Corcoran helped Trump respond to a May 2022 subpoena for all remaining classified documents in his possession. He greeted a Justice Department official at Mar-a-Lago the next month to hand over a folder containing 38 documents with classified markings, prosecutors said in court filings.

The indictment against Trump said the former president directed his personal aide Walt Nauta to remove documents from a Mar-a-Lago storage room to prevent Corcoran from finding them during his search.

Nauta was also charged in the indictment with helping to conceal documents.

Corcoran drafted a certification, signed by another Trump lawyer, attesting that all records with classified markings had been returned to the government – a claim later proven false when the FBI seized about 100 additional classified records during an August 2022 search.

Prosecutors, quoting Corcoran’s account, allege that during a meeting with Trump after Corcoran collected the 38 documents to turn over to the government, Trump made a “plucking motion,” implying that “if there’s anything really bad in there, like, you know, pluck it out.”

(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by David Bario, Howard Goller and Deepa Babington)

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