NEW YORK – US President Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer arrived at a Manhattan court on Monday for a showdown over documents seized as part of a federal investigation that could cast a harsh light on Trump’s business and personal relationships.
Adult-film star Stormy Daniels, who is entangled in a legal fight with Michael Cohen, the president’s lawyer, had been expected to attend the hearing. Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 in a 2016 agreement for her to keep quiet about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump a decade prior.
But her lawyer Michael Avenatti was seen entering the courtroom without Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, on Monday afternoon. Soon afterwards, he exited and left in a car.
“I think Michael Cohen is in a lot of trouble,” Avenatti told reporters outside the courthouse. Avenatti and Daniels are not parties in the court case.
Cohen, Trump’s fiercely loyal and pugnacious lawyer, is in court to ask a judge to limit the ability of federal prosecutors to review the documents, seized from him last week.
He has asked the court to give his own lawyers the first look at the seized materials so they can identify documents that are protected by attorney-client privilege.
Failing that, they want the court to appoint an independent official known as a special master, a role typically filled by a lawyer, to go through the documents and electronic data seized under a warrant and decide what prosecutors can see.
Prosecutors have asked that the seized documents be reviewed for attorney-client privilege by a “filter team” of lawyers within their own office, who would be walled off from the main prosecution team.
A lawyer for Trump, Joanna Hendon, asked in a filing on Sunday to be allowed to review documents that in any way relate to the president, which she described as being seized amid a “highly politicized, even fevered, atmosphere.”
Lawyers for Cohen appeared without their client at a hearing Friday before US District Judge Kimba Wood in Manhattan federal court. The judge ordered that Cohen himself be present Monday so that he could answer questions about his clients.
Cohen’s lawyers say that Cohen should not be required to turn over the names. They disclosed in a court filing on Monday that Cohen had at least 10 clients in 2017 and 2018, and that he did “traditional legal tasks” for three of them, including Trump, Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy and a third who asked not to be named.
Cohen arranged a $1.6-million payment to secure the silence of a former Playboy model who said she became pregnant by Broidy, a person familiar with the matter said Friday.
Cohen did not respond to a request for comment.
Last week’s raids came after a “months-long” investigation of possible crimes related largely to Cohen’s business dealings, rather than his work as a lawyer, prosecutors have said.
A person familiar with the raids said last week that the information Federal Bureau of Investigation agents were seeking included information about payments to Daniels.
The raids were based partly on a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller, who is investigating possible collusion between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia, according to court filings.
Trump has called Mueller’s probe a “witch hunt” and denied any collusion.
Todd Harrison, a lawyer for Cohen, said at Friday’s hearing there were thousands of documents seized that were likely privileged, and that many related to clients other than Trump.
