U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood said Wednesday Michael Cohen's and President Trump's legal teams have until June 15th to review FBI-seized materials and make requests they be covered by attorney-client privilege. After that date, Judge Wood says, a prosecution taint team will finish the job.
Federal prosecutors also revealed for the first time that among the items seized Cohen last months [sic] was a shredding machine, the contents of which are among the only items that the government has not yet turned over to the special master or Cohen’s legal team.
Federal prosecutors declined to comment on whether they would try to reassemble the contents of the shredder before turning them over or whether the very existence of a shredding machine necessitated the search warrant out of fear Cohen was attempting to destroy evidence. In defending the raids, the Justice Department has previously expressed concern that “absent a search warrant, these records could have been deleted without record, and without recourse for the law enforcement.”
Cohen's lawyers asked to be allowed to review materials from the April 9 raids of Cohen's office and home until mid-July, but Wood said she had to balance their needs to protect their client with the need of prosecutors to pursue their criminal fraud case against Cohen.
Cohen attorney Todd Harrison said over a dozen lawyers had reviewed 1.3 million of over 3.7 million files received from the government, designating privilege as necessary.
Cohen did not speak during the court proceeding, which lasted more than an hour and featured a colorful argument between lawyers for Cohen and Trump on one side and California attorney Michael Avenatti on the other as they discussed Avenatti's public statements on behalf of his porn-star client, Stormy Daniels.
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Avenatti said a journalist had contacted him recently, claiming to have a recorded conversation between Cohen and an attorney who represented Daniels when Cohen arranged to pay her $130,000 as part of the non-disclosure agreement. He accused Cohen's lawyers of leaking the audio. Ryan denied it, but said if his firm had released those audio tapes, "it would be the biggest story in America."
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If Avenatti formally joined the court case, he would have to end his "publicity tour on TV and elsewhere" and stop asserting that Cohen is guilty of wrongdoing, actions that could "potentially deprive him of a fair trial," the judge told Avenatti.
After the hearing, Avenatti formally withdrew his request to appear in the case.
Special Master Barbara Jones said in a letter Tuesday that lawyers for Cohen, Trump and the Trump Organization have designated more than 250 items as subject to attorney-client privilege. She said the material includes data from a video recorder.
Jones said more than a million pieces of data from three of Cohen's phones are ready to be given to criminal prosecutors, and more than 12,000 pages of documents from eight boxes that survived attorney-client privilege scrutiny already have been given back to prosecutors. More than a dozen electronic devices were seized or copied in the raids, and Jones said she has not yet received data from three seized items.
Full story: Judge sets June 15 deadline in study of materials in Michael Cohen raids (AP)
Michael Cohen's legal team racing to review materials seized in FBI raids (ABC News)