The committee had argued in its filing that Eastman’s claim of privilege was voided by the “crime/fraud exemption.” That exemption means communication between a lawyer and their client does not have to be kept confidential if the attorney is found to be helping the client commit a crime. To resolve the dispute, the committee asked Carter, the judge, to privately review the documents to see whether he thought Eastman had, in fact, been assisting Trump in criminal acts.