Christina Bobb, a Trump Lawyer, Is Under Justice Dept. Scrutiny - The New York Times

WASHINGTON — This spring, 1 of the lawyers representing erstwhile President Donald J. Trump made an urgent, high-stakes petition to Christina G. Bobb, who had conscionable jumped from a Trump-allied cablegram web to a occupation successful his governmental organization.

The erstwhile president was successful the midst of an escalating clash with the Justice Department astir documents helium had taken with him from the White House astatine the extremity of his term. The lawyer, M. Evan Corcoran, met Ms. Bobb astatine the president’s residence and backstage nine successful Florida and asked her to motion a connection for the section that the Trump ineligible squad had conducted a “diligent search” of Mar-a-Lago and recovered lone a fewer files that had not been returned to the government.

Ms. Bobb, a 39-year-old lawyer juggling amorphous roles successful her caller job, was being asked to instrumentality a measurement that neither Mr. Trump nor different members of the ineligible squad were consenting to instrumentality — truthful she looked earlier leaping.

“Wait a infinitesimal — I don’t cognize you,” Ms. Bobb replied to Mr. Corcoran’s request, according to a idiosyncratic to whom she aboriginal recounted the episode. She aboriginal complained that she did not person a afloat grasp of what was going connected astir her erstwhile she signed the document, according to 2 radical who person heard her account.

Ms. Bobb, who relentlessly promoted falsehoods astir the 2020 predetermination arsenic an on-air big for the far-right One America News Network, yet signed her name. But she insisted connected adding a written caveat earlier giving it to a elder Justice Department authoritative connected June 3: “The supra statements are existent and close to the champion of my knowledge.”

Her sworn statement, hedged oregon not, was shown to beryllium flatly mendacious aft the F.B.I.’s hunt of Mar-a-Lago connected Aug. 8, which recovered astir 100 further highly delicate government documents, including immoderate marked with the highest levels of classification. And prosecutors are present investigating whether her actions represent obstruction of justness oregon if she committed different crimes.

On Friday, Ms. Bobb sat for a voluntary interrogation with Justice Department lawyers successful Washington, according to 3 radical acquainted with the situation. She told them that different Trump lawyer, Boris Epshteyn, contacted her the nighttime earlier she signed the attestation and connected her with Mr. Corcoran. Ms. Bobb, who was surviving successful Florida, was told that she needed to spell to Mar-a-Lago the adjacent time to woody with an unspecified ineligible substance for Mr. Trump.

In her gathering with the section — a improvement reported by NBC News connected Monday — Ms. Bobb, who was accompanied by her transgression defence lawyer, John Lauro, emphasized that she was moving arsenic portion of a squad alternatively than arsenic a solo histrion erstwhile she signed the connection attesting to the instrumentality of each the documents, the radical said.

Mr. Corcoran, she told the Justice Department, had walked her done however helium had conducted a hunt of a retention installation astatine Mar-a-Lago for the documents. She said she had believed astatine the clip she signed the attestation successful June that it was accurate, according to a idiosyncratic with cognition of the situation.

Ms. Bobb has made wide that she is not taking an adversarial presumption toward Mr. Trump successful answering the Justice Department’s questions. She told investigators that earlier she signed the attestation, she heard Mr. Trump archer Mr. Corcoran that they should cooperate with the Justice Department and springiness prosecutors what they wanted — an assurance that would travel to ringing hollow arsenic the probe proceeded and became a bitter tribunal fight.

The Justice Department declined to comment. Ms. Bobb, Mr. Corcoran and a spokesperson for Mr. Trump did not respond to requests for comment. A lawyer for Mr. Epshteyn did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Ms. Bobb’s trajectory is simply a acquainted 1 successful Mr. Trump’s orbit: a marginal subordinate thrust by ambition and happenstance into a presumption wherever her illustration and prospects are elevated, but astatine the outgo of superior ineligible and reputational risk.

But she stands retired for a varied inheritance — she is simply a erstwhile Marine who served successful Afghanistan and a failed governmental campaigner who jettisoned a accepted vocation to go a far-right cablegram quality big — and for the tensile spot of her baseless condemnation that the 2020 predetermination was stolen from Mr. Trump.

In the past 2 years, Ms. Bobb has emerged arsenic 1 of his truest of existent believers, embracing conspiracy theories with a fervor that has astatine times seemed implicit the apical adjacent to her colleagues, according to interviews with a twelve radical who person worked with her implicit the past respective years.

Ms. Bobb has not been shy astir expressing her opinions connected blimpish quality outlets, speaking expansively astir the court-authorized F.B.I. hunt and her debased sentiment of those who executed it.

“I don’t judge that determination was immoderate classified worldly successful there, though I’m definite the F.B.I. volition accidental that determination is,” she said successful an interrogation with the blimpish activistic Dinesh D’Souza 2 days aft the warrant was executed.

Another blimpish activist, Mike Farris, asked if she was acrophobic by the Justice Department’s assertive approach.

“I’m not excessively disquieted astir it,” she replied. “They are each a clump of cowards; they don’t person anything.”

Ms. Bobb was contiguous successful the pro-Trump “command center” astatine the Willard Hotel successful Washington earlier the Capitol attack, on with Rudolph W. Giuliani and different Trump stalwarts.

She acted arsenic Mr. Giuliani’s go-between with authorities officials successful Arizona and helped fund-raise for a recount successful Maricopa County that Republican leaders called a “sham.” She drafted a memo and participated successful meetings to sermon a program to name alternate slates of electors to reverse morganatic authorities predetermination results. And Ms. Bobb created the machine record utilized to draught a proposal, ne'er carried out, for Mr. Trump to contented an enforcement bid for the federal authorities to prehend voting machines.

Dominion Voting Systems is suing Ms. Bobb and OAN for promoting unsubstantiated claims that the institution was portion of a vote-switching strategy to favour Joseph R. Biden Jr. The House committee investigating the Capitol riot subpoenaed Ms. Bobb successful March to attest astir her “attempts to disrupt oregon delay” certification of the predetermination and her reported engagement successful drafting the enforcement order.

She complied, but provided nary impervious erstwhile pressed connected her claims astir the election, according to a legislature adjutant with cognition of her testimony.

Ms. Bobb blurred the lines betwixt covering Mr. Trump and moving for him:

She offered a dour after-action study of the failed effort to name alternate electors to overturn the predetermination successful a antecedently undisclosed memo she sent to Mr. Trump connected March 29, 2021, portion moving for OAN. The memo, obtained from a idiosyncratic to whom it was aboriginal forwarded, was marked “ATTORNEY CLIENT PRIVILEGE” adjacent though she was not connected Mr. Trump’s ineligible squad astatine the time.

“If 3 states changed their electors, the effect of the predetermination would person flipped,” Ms. Bobb wrote, adding a caveat astatine the end: It was “unclear” whether the Supreme Court would person supported the elector scheme.

It is not known if Mr. Trump work it. He seems to person a mixed sentiment of Ms. Bobb’s on-air work, however, grousing that she was excessively flattering to him successful respective OAN interviews, according to 2 radical with cognition of the situation.

Ms. Bobb, a standout shot and volleyball subordinate during her precocious schoolhouse years successful the Phoenix area, graduated with a associated concern and instrumentality grade from San Diego State University and California Western School of Law successful 2008.

She joined the Marine Corps, going done serviceman campaigner schoolhouse and completing a grueling basal grooming people successful May 2010 arsenic 1 of 16 women successful a people of 280. She served successful the Judge Advocate General’s office, representing Marines successful disciplinary hearings, and was assigned for a clip successful Helmand Province, Afghanistan, arsenic an operational instrumentality lawyer consulting combat commanders connected the legality of subject operations.

Those experiences, Ms. Bobb has suggested, were beforehand of caput arsenic she stood successful the sweltering Mar-a-Lago parking batch angrily observing F.B.I. agents carrying retired the hunt warrant. “Every work subordinate tin archer you that you person an affirmative work to disregard an unlawful order,” she told Mr. Farris successful August.

Around that time, she made her archetypal foray into politics, moving arsenic an autarkic for a House spot successful a predominantly Democratic territory successful San Diego. She kept a defiantly debased profile, criticizing politicians who craved the “limelight,” maintaining a bare-bones website and raising nary money.

“I recognize that it mightiness not work, but it might,” she told a reporter covering the contention successful 2014.

It did not. Ms. Bobb finished past successful a tract of eight, with 929 votes. She did not situation the result.

A fewer years later, she moved to Washington; successful mid-2019, she was selected for an administrative occupation astatine the Department of Homeland Security — enforcement secretary. She served arsenic a conduit for outer correspondence, and her sanction was often attached to important memos, mostly drafted by others, specified arsenic a database of locations wherever Mr. Trump’s borderline partition was to beryllium built.

The occupation besides entailed different responsibility: ensuring compliance with national records laws.

Colleagues retrieve Ms. Bobb arsenic hardworking and professional, with a bearing much subject than governmental (she retained the wont of referring to superiors arsenic “sir” and “ma’am”). But it soon became wide that the department’s leadership, portion satisfied with her work, was not wowed with it and had nary volition of promoting her, 2 erstwhile co-workers said.

In precocious 2019, she requested a presumption successful the argumentation portion of Customs and Border Protection but near aft lone a fewer months, they said.

At that point, Ms. Bobb made an abrupt vocation shift, applying for a occupation with the San Diego-based OAN, wherever her transportation to homeland information seemed to person been a selling point.

The network’s blimpish owners viewed migration arsenic their apical precedence and wanted to bolster their coverage. Ms. Bobb’s archetypal on-air interrogation was with her erstwhile brag Chad Wolf, the acting homeland information secretary.

It was aft Election Day 2020 that she seemed to find her calling, airing aggregate reports of unproven electoral fraud, culminating successful a lengthy February 2021 segment, “Arizona Election Heist,” which promoted debunked and dubious claims astir her location state.

After the election, Ms. Bobb was besides a fixture astatine meetings wherever Trump hard-liners similar John Eastman and Sidney Powell discussed plans to reverse the results — which initially raised questions astir whether she was embedded for reporting purposes oregon committed to the cause. Participants rapidly concluded it was the latter, according to 1 of them.

By December, she was back-channeling requests from Mr. Giuliani to Republican authorities officials successful Arizona, pressuring them to authorize a recount of the Maricopa voting, contempt a statewide canvass that confirmed Mr. Biden’s 10,000-vote borderline of victory.

“Mayor Giuliani asked maine to nonstop you these declarations,” Ms. Bobb wrote to 1 leader, accompanied by affidavits, according to an email obtained by American Oversight, a left-leaning watchdog group.

By March 2022, Ms. Bobb decided to permission OAN and relocated to Florida to beryllium person to Mr. Trump and immoderate of the elder enactment of the Trump-affiliated Save America PAC, taking a unit occupation that paid $144,600 a year, according to national run concern records.

While she has been a fixture connected the airwaves and societal media, Ms. Bobb requested that her sanction beryllium redacted from the signed attestation astir the documents erstwhile it was unsealed successful precocious August, according to a idiosyncratic with cognition of the situation.

It leaked anyway.

Susan C. Beachy and Kitty Bennett contributed research, and Luke Broadwater and Eileen Sullivan contributed reporting.