Lawyers for President Donald Trump and his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, have told a federal judge in New York that they believe some of the documents and devices seized from Cohen during an FBI raid are protected by attorney-client privilege, and they want a chance to review the material before prosecutors get to examine them.
Prosecutors and the attorneys for Cohen and Trump appeared before U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood on Friday in Manhattan.
Cohen’s attorneys say they want a chance to review documents seized in the raid on Monday and specify items they believe aren’t relevant to the investigation.
An attorney for the president, Joanna Hendon, told the judge that Trump has “an acute interest in this matter.”
Oh yeah, I'll bet.
Here's more:
Federal prosecutors say in a court filing that the criminal probe that led them to raid the offices of Donald Trump’s personal lawyer this week is focused on his “personal business dealings.”
In the filing with a court in New York, prosecutors blacked out a section describing what crime they believe Trump attorney Michael Cohen has committed.
But they provided new details on the investigation, which they said has been going on for months.
They said agents had already searched multiple email accounts maintained by Cohen.
The filing said none of those emails was exchanged with Trump.
(Quick note, Trump does not use email.)
Ultimately the judge granted Trump's "right to intervene," a move that allows his attorneys to review the seized documents in order to protect Trump's rights, but demanded that Cohen show up for a hearing on Monday.
And she was not at all happy.
Part of the Fed's argument against the executive privilege claim is that Cohen is a fraud of a lawyer:Judge isn't denying motion now. But she isn't pleased.— erica orden (@eorden) April 13, 2018
"If you don't have the answers by 2 p.m. on Monday, I’m likely to discount the argument that there are thousands or more privileged documents," she tells Cohen's attorneys.
Michael Cohen is a fraud of a lawyer who works exclusively for President Trump, federal prosecutors charged Friday.
“Cohen has told at least one witness that he has only [one] client — President Trump,” the lawyers wrote in court documents, challenging Cohen’s claims that records seized in raids on his home and office Monday should be protected by attorney-client privilege.
And he’s barely doing any “legal work” for Trump, either, they claim.
“[Reviews of the records] indicate that Cohen is in fact performing little to no legal work, and that zero e-mails were exchanged with President Trump,” according to the brief, filed in Manhattan federal court.
In fact, the criminal investigation into Cohen isn’t about his work as a lawyer, “but rather relate[s] to Cohen’s own business dealings,” the feds argued.
According to Michael Avenatti there is a "very good chance" that some of the siezed documents pertain to his client, Stormy Daniels, and he suggests that she might just show up on Monday to observe the hearing.
Sure, why not?
After all it really isn't a party until the porn star shows up, right?
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