Trump lawyer asks court to let Trump see seized Michael Cohen documents before prosecutors

Michael Cohen
(Image credit: Getty Images)

On Friday, lawyers for Michael Cohen, President Trump's longtime lawyer and fixer, sought a temporary restraining order to prevent federal prosecutors from reading through the tranche of documents and electronic files the FBI seized from his office and residences on April 9, and in a filing Sunday night, Trump's lawyers asked to join in on Cohen's requested first review of the documents.

Prosecutor at the office of the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, which is leading the investigation into Cohen's activities, want to have a "taint" or "filter" team of prosecutors not connected to the investigation sort through the documents first to pick out any that might violate legitimate attorney-client privilege. Cohen and now Trump formally oppose that system. They are requesting that Cohen's lawyers, after their review, be made to "identify to the president all seized materials that relate to him in any way and provide a copy of those materials to him and his counsel," letting Trump say what he believes to be privileged information

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.