I just took a first look at the motion filed today by the US Attorney’s office (USAO-SDNY) opposing Cohen’s attempt to stall proceedings. Cohen is attempting to stop anyone from looking at what was seized in the raid on the grounds of attorney-client privilege.
The USAO-SDNY’s boils down to: he really isn’t acting as a lawyer...he’s Trump’s fixer. This is a direct quote from their filing:
Cohen claims that the materials seized include “thousands of privileged documents and communications related to numerous clients of Mr. Cohen, as well as Mr. Cohen’s privileged communications with his own attorneys.” Although the USAO-SDNY and FBI have not yet reviewed the seized materials, there is considerable reason to doubt that assertion….it is neither apparent (i) that Cohen, in his capacity as an attorney, has many, or any, attorney-client relationships other than with President Donald Trump (indeed, he does not specifically identify any in his motion and thus far has refused to identify any to the USAO-SDNY), nor (ii) that the seized communications will include a significant volume of communications with that one identified client.
They proceed to enumerate the reasons. First “Cohen’s claim that he has confidential communications with multiple clients appears to be exaggerated. For example, Cohen has told at least one witness that he has only client – President Trump.” Second, Cohen isn’t really part of the law firm that he says he is. He has just been keeping an office on their premises since March, 2017. He keeps no timesheets there, and the firm does not bill anyone for his work.
Then, sadly, there are three redacted lines. I say “sadly” because the conclusion is “further belying the notion that Cohen is currently engaged in any significant practice of law.
But then comes the really good part:
Fourth, the USAO-SDNY has specific reason to doubt that the seized materials willinclude the volume and nature of attorney-client communications that Cohen claims. This is because the USAO-SDNY has already obtained search warrants – covert until this point – on multiple different email accounts maintained by Cohen, and has conducted a privilege review of the materials obtained pursuant to those warrants. The results of that review, as reported by the USAO's Filter Team, indicate that Cohen is in fact performing little to no legal work, and that zero emails were exchanged with President Trump
Boom.
The hastily-assembled legal team for Cohen and Trump that were in court today were shambles. At one point the judge asked them how many other clients Cohen had and whether a list could be produced. They couldn’t. The judge expressed the incredulity that any thinking person would experience if they were expected to believe in this day and age that a lawyer doesn’t have any easily accessible record of who his clients are.
The judge told them to go away and muster such a list.
UPDATE: The crack legal team worked on this for hours then came back into court and said they couldn’t produce such a list, they’d need until Monday!