An initial review of the documents that were seized during the FBI raid of Michael Cohen’s office, home, and hotel room found that only a small number of items are to be considered privileged meaning they would be protected from prosecutors.
CNBC on Monday reported that a special master has reviewed nearly 300,000 documents and files taken from President Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney.
Of the 300,000 documents, the special master decided that only 162 are to be considered privileged or partially privileged, while another seven items were designated as “highly personal.”
The court-appointed special master, Barbara Jones, was tasked to go through 12,543 pages of papers, as well as more than 291,000 items on two phones and an iPad.
According to CNBC, Jones is still expected to review thousands of additional documents and files seized in the April raid, which reportedly include bank records, communications between Cohen and Trump as well as documents related to payments to two women who claim they had an affair with Trump more than a decade ago.
Jones as a former federal judge was appointed by the Department of Justice as a neutral party tasked with reviewing the documents in order to determine which are protected by attorney-client privilege.
After the raid, attorneys for Cohen and Trump both expressed concerns that many items taken could include privileged information. They argued that they should be able to review the items ahead of federal prosecutors. Trump reportedly offered to review the documents himself.
Kimba Wood, the presiding judge in Cohen’s case, rejected that premise. The two sides ultimately agreed on the appointment of a special master in the case to examine the documents as a neutral third party.
Cohen is reportedly under investigation in the Southern District of New York for bank fraud and campaign finance violations.
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