Review of Cohen’s records finds a fraction fall under attorney-client privilege
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Michael Cohen is under scrutiny for possible fraud and his role in arranging a $130,000 payment to an adult-film actress in exchange for her silence about an alleged affair with Donald Trump. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images
By DARREN SAMUELSOHN
06/04/2018 07:47 PM EDT
A former federal judge tasked with sifting through records seized from President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer is recommending federal prosecutors can see all but a fraction of the items.
In a two-page status report .. https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000163-cd0b-d9d9-a767-dd9bce780001 .. submitted Monday, court-appointed special master Barbara Jones said she found just 14 out of 639 items — containing 12,543 pages of “hard copy materials” taken from Michael Cohen’s home, office and hotel room — should be held back from federal prosecutors because of attorney-client privilege.
Separately, Jones ruled that 148 out of 291,770 total items on two phones and an iPad taken from Cohen by the FBI fell into privileged or partially privileged categories. Another seven items, Jones added, were deemed “Highly Personal.”
Jones’s report covers only a small part of the materials seized in April from Cohen, which includes more than a dozen mobile devices and 19 other digital-media devices. Todd Harrison, a lawyer for Cohen, told the court last week that his firm had received about 3.7 million files, with about 1.3 million already turned over to Jones for her review.
In a report filed last week, Jones said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York had received .. https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/29/michael-cohen-bills-legal-611507 .. its first batch of the information, including nearly 300,000 “items.” Her report did not specify what an “item” was – though it’s likely to include a photo, video file or email message.
Jones, a former U.S. District Court judge in Manhattan, was appointed in April to lead the review process of the FBI-seized materials after lawyers for Cohen, Trump and the Trump Organization demanded the court ensure any legally privileged attorney-client communications didn’t end up in the hands of federal prosecutors who are examining Cohen’s business affairs.
That investigation, being led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York, encompasses potential fraud charges against Cohen, as well as examining his role in arranging a $130,000 payment before the 2016 presidential election to the adult-film actress Stormy Daniels to get her to remain silent about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier.
Avenatti says Keith Davidson, Stormy's previous lawyer, and Cohen worked together, while they were supposed to be working against each other. Col. Peters also features. Peters says, "We are in a constitutional crisis now."
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