A federal judge ordered Tuesday that the search warrants for President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, sought by special counsel Robert Mueller, be released.
In her order on Tuesday, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Chief Justice Beryl A. Howell wrote that the documents may be unsealed after the authorities make any necessary redactions.
The documents will likely provide additional details regarding the special counsel’s efforts to investigate Cohen before referring the case to federal prosecutors in New York.
A number of prominent media outlets such as The New York Times and The Washington Post have also requested that the five search warrants for Cohen be released after they were referenced in previously unsealed search warrant materials in the Southern District of New York, The Hill writes.
Howell noted that federal prosecutors agree to the release of the documents provided that the government is allowed to make certain redactions first. She added that Cohen has neither responded to requests for the release of the search warrants nor “objected to the requested unsealing.”
Earlier this year, separate documents pertaining to the raids on the lawyer’s apartment, hotel room and office were released, showing that Mueller requested the search warrants on Cohen almost a year before the FBI raids on the former Trump lawyer’s properties.
The judge further noted that the Justice Department had until August to inform her as to whether the redacted parts of the warrants should stay sealed.
Cohen started serving his three-year prison sentence earlier this month on charges of financial crimes, campaign finance violations and lying to federal prosecutors. His offices, home and hotel room were raided by the FBI in April 2018, uncovering among other things information about adult-film star Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had an affair with Trump.
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