Secret Service agents for former President Donald Trump are being called to testify against him, according to new reports from Fox News’ Bret Baier.
Baier said on Twitter that “multiple” Secret Service agents for the former president have already been subpoenaed and are “expected to testify before the D.C. grand jury likely on Friday.”
“The grand jury appearances are related to the Special Counsel Jack Smith probe into the handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago,” Baier tweeted on Monday.
FOX News is told multiple U.S. Secret Service agents connected to Former President Donald Trump have been subpoenaed & are expected to testify before the D.C. grand jury likely on Friday. The grand jury appearances are related to the Special Counsel Jack Smith probe into the…
— Bret Baier (@BretBaier) April 3, 2023
The Special Counsel investigation being led by Jack Smith presented evidence in March that former President Donald Trump has “knowingly and deliberately misled his own attorneys about his retention of classified materials after leaving office,” according to a former top federal judge who leaked the contents of a sealed filing to ABC News on Tuesday.
“U.S. Judge Beryl Howell, who on Friday stepped down as the D.C. district court’s chief judge, wrote last week that prosecutors in special counsel Jack Smith’s office had made a ‘prima facie showing that the former president had committed criminal violations,’” ABC News reported, “and that attorney-client privileges invoked by two of his lawyers could therefore be pierced.”
Donald Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in the classified documents case. The former president blasted the report.
“These leaks are happening because there is no factual or legal basis or substance to any case against President Trump. The deranged Democrats and their comrades in the mainstream media are corrupting the legal process and weaponizing the justice system in order to manipulate public opinion, because they are clearly losing the political battle.
The ABC News report claimed that Trump was involved in a “criminal scheme” and his lawyer is being compelled to breach attorney-client privilege to testify against the former president.
“In her sealed filing, Howell ordered that Evan Corcoran, an attorney for Trump, should comply with a grand jury subpoena for testimony on six separate lines of inquiry over which he had previously asserted attorney-client privilege,” the report continued.
“Sources added that Howell also ordered Corcoran to hand over a number of records tied to what Howell described as Trump’s alleged ‘criminal scheme,’ echoing prosecutors,” the report noted. “Those records include handwritten notes, invoices, and transcriptions of personal audio recordings.”
As the ABC report noted, “reaching the so-called prima facie standard to pierce Corcoran’s privilege, Howell agreed prosecutors made a sufficient showing that on its face would appear to show Trump committed crimes. The judge made it clear that prosecutors would still need to meet a higher standard of evidence in order to seek charges against Trump, and more still to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”
“It is a lower hurdle, but it is an indication that the government had presented some evidence and allegation that they had evidence that met the elements of a crime,” former Justice Dept. attorney Brandon Van Grack told ABC News.
The news comes as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has obtained a grand jury indictment and has arranged for the arrest of former President Donald Trump.
The Secret Service is preparing for Donald Trump to be turned over to authorities. New York City has mobilized hundreds of police officers equipped in riot gear, but thus far protests on Donald Trump’s behalf have remained civil and peaceful.
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