One of the most amazing things about Donald Trump’s classified documents scandal is how easy it would’ve been for him to avoid an indictment. The former president repeatedly received good advice from his lawyers, and if he’d followed their guidance, the whole mess would’ve gone away.
But Trump ignored them and is now confronting precarious consequences.
The latest evidence of his extraordinarily poor judgment comes by way of a new report from ABC News.
In May of last year, shortly after the Justice Department issued a subpoena to former President Donald Trump for all classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Trump’s then-lead attorney on the matter, Evan Corcoran, warned the former president in person, at Mar-a-Lago, that not only did Trump have to fully comply with the subpoena, but that the FBI might search the estate if he didn’t, according to Corcoran’s audio notes following the conversation.
According to the report, portions of which have been confirmed by NBC News, Corcoran’s recollections were “captured in a series of voice memos he made on his phone” after speaking to his then-client.
Trump later said it was “shocking” to see the FBI execute a court-approved search warrant at his glorified country club, but there was nothing shocking about it: His own lawyer told him the FBI would show up at his door and search the premises, and a few months later, that’s precisely what happened.
Corcoran apparently made this quite simple for the former president. “[T]here’s a prospect that they could go to a judge and get a search warrant, and that they could arrive here,” Corcoran recalled warning Trump as they spoke at Mar-a-Lago.
What’s more, this isn’t the first such revelation from the broader scandal. Remember this Washington Post report from June?
One of Donald Trump’s new attorneys proposed an idea in the fall of 2022: The former president’s team could try to arrange a settlement with the Justice Department. The attorney, Christopher Kise, wanted to quietly approach Justice to see if he could negotiate a settlement that would preclude charges, hoping Attorney General Merrick Garland and the department would want an exit ramp to avoid prosecuting a former president. Kise would hopefully “take the temperature down,” he told others, by promising a professional approach and the return of all documents.
The smart move for Trump would’ve been to reply, “That sounds great, let’s do that.” But he did not choose the smart course.
Instead, according to the Post’s report, the former president talked to others — most notably Tom Fitton, the head of the conservative group Judicial Watch — “who urged a more pugilistic approach.”
Trump, the article added, “was not interested” in Kise’s strategy.
The problem, of course, is that Kise’s strategy likely would’ve worked. We can say this with some certainty because, as we’ve discussed, federal prosecutors gave Trump a pass on the documents he took but gave back. If the former president had returned all of the materials he improperly took, and cooperated with law enforcement, it’s easy to believe this whole mess would’ve gone away.
But Trump preferred to listen to those who said it’d be better to fight — instead of the lawyers who reportedly kept trying to explain that he’d be far better off if he didn’t need to fight. “Trump time and again rejected the advice from lawyers and advisers who urged him to cooperate,” the article added. One person close to Trump who has been part of dozens of discussions about the documents, told the Post, “It was a totally unforced error. We didn’t have to be here.” The quote came to mind anew reading ABC News’ report on the advice the Republican received from Corcoran. In response to his indictment in this case, Trump has lashed out wildly, blaming a wide range of perceived villains for his dilemma. The former president has blamed special counsel Jack Smith. And President Joe Biden. And the Justice Department. And the media. And Attorney General Merrick Garland. At one point, he even blamed “mutants,” though it wasn’t altogether clear to whom he was referring. But circling back to our earlier coverage, the obvious problem with the Republican’s whining is that he’s stuck in a mess of his own creation. No one forced Trump to take classified documents to a glorified country club. No one twisted his arm, urging him to defy a federal subpoena. No one directed the former president to show sensitive materials to people without clearances, encourage those around him to lie, or engage in a clumsy cover-up. And no one told him to ignore sound guidance from his own lawyers. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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