Lucas Jackson/Reuters
Michael Cohen.
- A federal judge on Thursday ruled on the most significant aspect of the case involving President Donald Trump's longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen.
- The judge opted to appoint what's known as a special master in the case.
- The special master will conduct the initial review of documents obtained by the government during raids of Cohen's home, office, and hotel room and determine what falls under attorney-client privilege.
- Prosecutors cited Trump's comments from a Thursday "Fox and Friends" interview as evidence that there would not be many documents that fell under such privilege, meaning a review should be rather quick.
NEW YORK - A federal judge on Thursday sided with President Donald Trump's longtime lawyer Michael Cohen on most significant issue in his case - and in doing so added another wild card to the proceedings.
US District Court Judge Kimba Wood said she would appoint a special master in Cohen's case to initially review documents seized during the FBI's raids on Cohen's home, office, and hotel room. The special master will determine whether something falls under protected attorney-client privilege and what prosecutors could use against Cohen.
Wood appointed Barbara Jones, a partner at Bracewell who specializes in white collar litigation, as the special master. Jones was not one of the candidates submitted by Cohen's team or by the government to serve as the special master.
Legal experts told Business Insider that Wood would be more likely to select one of the government's nominees, who were retired judges from the Southern District of New York. Cohen's team submitted names of former federal prosecutors.
Instead, Wood made a decision outside of both lists. Her selection, however, pleased Cohen's legal team.
"We embrace the court's order," said Stephen Ryan, Cohen's attorney, calling Jones a "wonderful choice."
Both sides continued to debate in court Thursday over whether the special master should be given a deadline for completing the review.
Trump and Cohen differed on a special master
Trump and Cohen did not quite see eye to eye on a special master.
After seeking to allow Cohen to review the documents, Cohen's attorneys sought the appointment, while Trump has offered to review them himself.
The government opposes such an appointment, insisting that a so-called taint team of prosecutors could do the initial document review effectively. It argued that the case does not present special circumstances.
Wood had signaled she was open to using a taint team or appointing a special master.
Raiding an attorney's office is a last-resort option for the Justice Department when it fears that documents could be destroyed if they were sought in any other way.
Meanwhile, earlier Thursday, Trump suggested that Cohen handled only a small portion of his legal work as the case involving the attorney centers on how much evidence obtained by the government falls under attorney-client privilege.
During an interview on Thursday with the Fox News morning show "Fox & Friends," Trump said Cohen handled a "tiny, tiny fraction" of his "overall legal work."
In a filing later Thursday, the government cited the comments as evidence that "the seized materials are unlikely to contain voluminous privileged documents."
The FBI conducted the raids earlier this month as part of a criminal investigation into whether Cohen violated campaign finance laws or committed bank fraud. Prosecutors haven't disclosed what exactly they are looking into, though they said in a court filing that "the crimes being investigated involve acts of concealment."
Cohen is said to have been a cause for worry in the White House in recent weeks. People close to Trump have suggested Cohen is likely to "flip," or cooperate with the government by providing information about others in exchange for a lesser punishment. Cohen has not been charged with a crime.
Cohen, who for years has been a close friend and adviser to Trump, has expressed intense loyalty to the president. He once reportedly said he would "take a bullet" for Trump, and he has handled sensitive matters related to him, including paying the porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 shortly before the 2016 election to ensure her silence about an alleged affair with Trump.
Daniels' attorney, Michael Avenatti, filed a motion Thursday morning to have Daniels - whose real name is Stephanie Clifford - join the case as an intervening party, but Wood said in the afternoon hearing that she would not yet rule on that aspect of the case.