The federal government has obtained more than 700 pages of content from encrypted apps on phones seized from Michael Cohen, put back together 16 pages of evidence found in a shredder at one of his properties, and extracted more than 300 megabytes of data from one of the Blackberrys seized in the April 9 raids on the office and residences of President Donald Trump's longtime personal lawyer.
Lawyers from the US Attorney's Office in Manhattan informed US District Judge Kimba Wood of the new materials in a letter filed with the court Friday afternoon.
The government prosecutors, from the Southern District of New York, previously said in court that they were attempting to piece together the shredded documents and that data on two Blackberrys had not yet been extracted.
The materials already have been turned over to Cohen's lawyers, the federal prosecutors said in the letter, so that those lawyers can review them to decide whether they believe any of the materials contain information protected by attorney-client privilege.
Cohen and his lawyers faced a Friday deadline to complete their review of the previously produced materials.
Wood has appointed a special master — former federal judge Barbara Jones — to oversee Cohen, Trump, and the Trump Organization’s claims of privilege.
Once they provide Jones with their claims, Jones will review them, then present Wood and the parties with her privilege recommendations. At that point, Cohen, Trump, and the Trump Organization lawyers can object to Jones’ recommendations in a filing to Wood, who will then make a final determination. Government lawyers also can object, seeking a determination, for example, that the crime-fraud exception to the privilege should apply. Wood, ultimately, will make the call on which materials are privileged.
In Friday's letter from the federal prosecutors, they also said that the parties were jointly proposing to Wood that Cohen's lawyers would have their review of the new materials completed within 10 days, by June 25.
From the government's letter:
