Judge appoints ‘special master’ to review seized Michael Cohen documents

  It is now being reported that the judge overseeing the Michael Cohen case, Kimba Wood, has appointed a “special master” to look through the documents which were seized from his office. Here is more:

The federal judge presiding over the criminal investigation into Trump attorney Michael Cohen agreed Thursday to appoint an independent “special master” to review the material seized in a recent FBI raid, granting a request first made by Cohen’s lawyers. 

During a court hearing in New York City Thursday, Judge Kimba Wood announced the appointment of Special Master Barbara Jones, who will now look through material seized in the raid on Cohen’s apartment, office and hotel room. 

The decision comes after federal prosecutors also endorsed the call. The appointment allows an independent reviewer to lead “an expeditious and fair review of the materials,” according to a letter U.S. Attorney Robert Khuzami submitted to the judge early Thursday.

  Admittedly I am not familiar with how this works but from what I understand the special master will review the documents to determine which ones are protected under attorney-client privilege and, according to the article linked to above, Michael Cohen’s lawyers will have the chance to flag any documents they feel are protected. 

At the same time the special master reviews the documents, Cohen’s attorneys will have the opportunity to go through and flag any seized material that they deem protected under attorney-client privilege. 

  This seems like the next logical step to me based on my limited knowledge of how this works and hopefully it will truly be fair.

  It is being reported that Michael Cohen is going to plead the Fifth in this case and with the potential violation of attorney-client privilege this seems like the only course of action he could take at this time. Once, and if, that issue is resolved he should be free to testify if he has nothing to hide.

malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium