Michael Cohen. Image by twitter

Only a tiny fraction of the documents seized from President Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen and reviewed by a court-appointed official are protected by attorney-client privilege, according to a court filing on Monday.

Barbara Jones, the court-appointed special master reviewing the documents, said in the filing in Manhattan federal court that out of 291,770 items found on two phones and an iPad, she agreed with lawyers for Cohen, Trump or the Trump Organization that 148 were privileged.

Jones said that out of 639 items found in eight boxes of hard-copy materials, she agreed that 14 were privileged.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis of the crisis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Lawyers for Cohen, Trump and the Trump Organization could not immediately be reached for comment. The office of the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, which is investigating Cohen for possible crimes related to his business dealings, also could not be reached.

Monday’s report covered only a small part of the materials seized by authorities in raids on Cohen’s home, office and hotel room in April. Todd Harrison, a lawyer for Cohen, said at a court hearing last week that his firm had received about 3.7 million files.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

This year, we have stood together in strength and sorrow. Our Forward team has worked around the clock to help you find clarity amid the chaos.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount