Mark Levin on DOJ's move to pierce Trump's attorney-client privilege: This is the unraveling of our liberties

foxnews ^ | 2/19/2023 | By Ashley Carnahan

[bitt]

Justice Department prosecutors asked a federal judge to compel one of Trump's lawyers to testify

Fox News host Mark Levin tore into special counsel Jack Smith for going after former President Trump's right to attorney-client privilege.

Justice Department prosecutors on Tuesday asked a federal judge to compel one of Trump's lawyers, M. Evan Corcoran, to answer more questions before a grand jury regarding the former president's handling of classified documents. Prosecutors cited the crime-fraud exception as a way to circumvent the attorney-client privilege.

This exception, Levin said, is used if prosecutors believe a client is seeking advice from an attorney to assist with the furtherance of a crime or fraud.

"Then the communication is said not to be privileged. So the prosecution goes to a judge and says, 'look, I've got evidence here that basically this is a ruse, that, in fact, the client is using the attorney to perpetrate an ongoing crime and fraud,'" he explained on "Life Liberty & Levin."

Levin argued attorney-client privilege is a fundamental right protected under the Bill of Rights and crucial to a functioning government.

He called out Smith for trying to pierce it, saying he has a "wildly broad interpretation of obstruction."

"I don't have to read tea leaves. I see what he's doing, and he wants to make an obstruction case, but he wants to violate a principle that applies to all of us when it comes to justice and lawyers," he said.

[Vaduz]

Check