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Judge rejects Trump lawyer's request to keep seized records from being accessed by investigators - ABC News

posted onApril 17, 2018
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Article snippet: A federal judge Monday rejected efforts by President Donald Trump and his personal attorney to keep law enforcement from accessing records seized in a stunning raid last week. U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood said she has “faith" in federal prosecutors from the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office, who are running the investigation into Trump's personal attorney and self-described fixer, Michael Cohen. Prosecutors will now have a team separate from the one investigating Cohen put all of the seized documents on a searchable database — without reading any of them. They will then share the database with lawyers for Cohen and Trump. Officials told the court that those seized records include roughly 10 boxes, plus data files on multiple phones and electronic devices that could take up to two weeks to organize. The court battle that waged through most of the afternoon was put in motion when FBI agents raided Cohen's office, home and hotel room a week ago to search for records connected with certain work on behalf of Trump and in Cohen's own business dealings. Cohen appealed to the court, arguing that the lion's share of the records needed to be kept confidential because of attorney-client privilege. Trump joined the effort. Federal prosecutors, after first declining to discuss anything about the ongoing case last week, argued both in filings and in open court that Cohen represented few people as an attorney and, therefore, he possessed few documents legitimately ... Link to the full article to read more

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