Trump’s legal storms converge in Manhattan courtroom

WASHINGTON — All of President Donald Trump’s most vexing legal problems seemed to converge in a federal courtroom in Manhattan on Friday.

His longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, was fighting prosecutors’ attempts to sift through records — which could include communications with the president himself — seized during court-authorized raids earlier in the week.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan revealed in a court filing that Cohen faces a “months-long investigation” into “criminal conduct that largely centers on his personal business dealings.” Prosecutors also disclosed that previous search warrants have allowed them to secretly examine Cohen’s emails.

The case appears related to hush money paid to women who claim they had sexual affairs with Trump years ago, arrangements that could be considered illegal campaign expenditures because the money was delivered shortly before the election. However, the raids were launched using evidence passed along by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is leading the investigation into Russian political interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Friday’s court hearing featured a bulging cast of characters who have contributed to the blaze, all of which centered on a longtime Trump aide and fixer who has given the president the absolute loyalty he demands.

In addition to prosecutors, there was the attorney representing the adult film actress known as Stormy Daniels, Michael Avenatti. He was interested in whether any evidence collected in the raids involved his client. Daniels was paid $130,000 by Cohen weeks before the election to prevent her from sharing her story about sleeping with Trump.

The president had his own attorney present as well, the newly hired Joanna Hendon, who said Trump “has an acute interest in these proceedings.” She asked the judge to delay a decision about how the seized materials could be handled until she had a chance to review the government’s case.

And there was the attorney for Cohen, whose allegiance to Trump now faces a stern test.

The public version of the government’s legal filing blacked out the specific charges Cohen is accused of, but noted that the investigation into his work has “proceeded independent from” Mueller’s case. The searches of Cohen’s office, home and hotel room were “the result of a months-long investigation” into alleged crimes that “have nothing to do with his work as an attorney,” the government said, adding that he’s “performing little to no legal work.”

Cohen wants prosecutors to allow his lawyers to sift through the seized records to determine whether anything is the subject of attorneyclient privilege.

Prosecutors said the argument doesn’t have “any precedent or legal basis” and “would permit subjects or targets of an investigation, who have not yet been indicted, to delay government investigations into their criminal conduct.”

They proposed using a “filter team,” a standard practice in which a separate unit of government lawyers examine documents and determine what can appropriately be passed along to prosecutors preparing a case.

In their partially redacted court filing, prosecutors questioned how much of Cohen’s correspondence would fall under attorney-client privilege. Partly that’s because he’s done little legal work, prosecutors said.

But, they noted, Trump’s own words may have invited legal trouble as well. The president recently told reporters he was unaware of the $130,000 payment to Daniels. If so, Cohen might have trouble claiming he was acting on behalf of Trump as a client, meaning any communications involving the money may not be privileged, prosecutors suggested.