Special master in Cohen case finds few privileged items in initial review

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Michael Cohen, personal lawyer to U.S. President Donald Trump, arrives at federal court in New York, U.S., on Wednesday, May 30, 2018.

A court appointed watchdog in the case of President Donald Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, released an initial report Monday which found that relatively few documents in an initial tranche of documents that were seized from Cohen in a raid met the standard of being subject to attorney client privilege.

The priviliged documents will not be turned over to federal prosecutors in New York who are conducting a criminal investigation of Cohen. The 51-year longtime lawyer for Trump is under scrutiny for various business dealings, as well as a $130,000 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 presidential election.

In a report to the court, Special Master Barbara Jones found that eight boxes of papers contained “639 total items consisting of 12,543 pages.” Of these, Jones found “14 items are Privileged and/or Partially Privileged…and 3 items are not privileged.”

Jones also reviewed the contents of two phones and one iPad, she wrote. “Out of291,770 total items,” Jones found “148 items are Privileged and/or Partially Privileged and that 7 items are Highly Personal.”

The review represents only a small fraction of the documents, including computer hard drives, which Jones is expected to review.