Trump's legal adviser Boris Epshteyn next to appear before special counsel's grand jury: report

A longtime adviser to Donald Trump, Boris Epshteyn, was sitting at the lawyer's table after his boss was booked in the Manhattan court. Now he's going to be sitting for special counsel Jack Smith, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

Epshteyn is the second Trump lawyer to be called to answer questions, the other being Evan Corcoran, who recently revealed that since he was forced to testify, he must recuse himself from the stolen documents case. It's unclear whether Epshteyn would have been doing a lot of work during the trial for the documents case or the Jan. 6 case or if his purpose is as a campaign adviser.

Grand jury investigations are secret, so only Epshteyn could reveal what case it is about.

“Mr. Epshteyn continues to assist the president in coordinating the legal efforts, including battling against the witch hunts by the deranged, radical Jack Smith and the weaponized, woke Department of Justice,” said Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung, according to the Times.

The news came after a Washington Post report that Epshteyn could be taking a step back among the Trump advisers.

"Boris Epshteyn will still work for Trump and is viewed as one of his most trusted confidants, but he is unlikely to continue to work directly with some of the outside counsel handling the pair of criminal probes into Trump’s possible mishandling of classified documents at his Florida home and key aspects of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack probe, according to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations by his legal team," the Post said.

Epshteyn was forced to hand over his cell phone to federal agents last year for the investigations into Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 election. It was seized by federal agents. Epshteyn, however, has not ever been cited as a target of the investigation.