Politics

Review now finished of evidence seized in Michael Cohen raid

A Special Master who waded through evidence seized in an April 9 raid on the ex-personal lawyer of President Donald Trump said Thursday that she had finished reviewing documents and other materials that had been the subject of attorney-client privilege claims, keeping some items private, but delivering the vast majority to federal prosecutors for their review.

In a document submitted to a federal judge on Thursday, retired federal judge Barbara Jones said simply, “the Special Master has concluded her review.”

Indicating that all evidence legally available to prosecutors has been handed over, she said one final release of 2,558 items ‘designated “not privileged” and/or “not highly personal” has been made to the Government,’ Jones wrote.

With most of that evidence from the Cohen raid – which was denounced by the President back in April – now in the hands of federal prosecutors, the question is what will federal prosecutors do with that information – and will it lead to any charges being brought against Cohen, or possibly lead to any investigative actions involving President Trump.

While no details have officially been released by either the Special Master or the court about the evidence, at least one item is a tape recording that Cohen made of a conversation he had with the President just before the 2016 election, concerning payments to a woman who claimed she had an affair with Mr. Trump.

“Just as Richard Nixon learned, tapes don’t lie,” Cohen’s new lawyer Lanny Davis said several weeks ago, as the Cohen and Trump teams battled over whether the tape showed Mr. Trump had said to pay the woman in cash.

Reports have indicated that Cohen could be under investigation for campaign finance law violations involving such payments, and that he also may be under investigation for tax fraud – but no charges have been made against Cohen, who for years operated as Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer and ‘fixer.’

Cohen has been quiet in recent weeks, after giving interviews and making statements which made clear his loyalty was to his family and country – not to President Trump.

Mr. Trump has not tweeted about Cohen since early May, when the President tried to explain away Cohen’s legal work dealing with women who said they had an affair, saying there was no link to the 2016 elections.

“Mr. Cohen, an attorney, received a monthly retainer, not from the campaign and having nothing to do with the campaign, from which he entered into, through reimbursement, a private contract between two parties, known as a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA,” the President tweeted on May 3.