Special master in Cohen’s case to release hundreds of documents to prosecution

The special master tasked with reviewing materials in Michael Cohen’s court case on Tuesday released hundreds more documents to the prosecution.

Special Master Barbara Jones said in a court filing Tuesday that 595 of 1,262 items examined in her latest review are protected by attorney-client privilege. Two were deemed “highly personal,” while the remaining 665 documents are “not privileged,” Jones said. 

Lawyers for Cohen objected to two items being considered “not privileged,” Jones said in her filing. However, they do not intend to raise those objections in court.

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As a result, the 665 documents will be released to the prosecution in the case.

Jones was appointed in late April to review the scores of documents seized in an FBI raid of Cohen’s hotel room, office and home to determine which are protected under attorney-client privilege. 

Jones has examined thousands of additional materials in recent weeks to determine whether they are privileged, and released her findings in batches.

In early June, Jones determined that only 162 documents out of an initial roughly 300,000 were considered privileged or partially privileged. 

Cohen’s legal team has argued that more than 12,000 documents seized during the April FBI raid should be protected by attorney-client privilege. 

Earlier this month, Jones said that 2,633 of the next 4,085 she reviewed were, in fact, privileged.

Cohen is under investigation in the Southern District of New York, reportedly for bank fraud and campaign finance violations.

Jones said in a separate filing on Monday that the government seized a dozen audio tapes during the raids. The contents of the tapes are not publicly known, but they have since been turned over to the prosecution.

The filing came days after it was reported that Cohen secretly recorded Trump during a conversation about a payment to a Playboy model who claimed she had an affair with the president in 2006.

President Trump’s attorneys reportedly waived the right to consider the tapes privileged. 

Cohen, who served as Trump’s longtime fixer, raised speculation that he might cooperate with federal investigators after he said in an interview earlier this month that his “first loyalty” is to his country, not the president.