The restraining order Cohen had appealed to the courts for over information collected in the FBI raids has been rejected by the judge. However, the judge didn’t rule out appointing someone to oversee the process to determine if anything should be protected under attorney-client privilege:
AJC – A federal judge in New York on Monday refused a request by lawyers for President Donald Trump to stop federal investigators from going through evidence seized from Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, but the judge held off on deciding how best to review those materials for questions of possible attorney-client privilege involving the President, and whether that should keep some of the evidence out of the hands of prosecutors.
In a several hour hearing, federal judge Kimba Wood left open the possibility that she might appoint a “special master” to oversee the process of evaluating the evidence seized from the President’s lawyer, to determine which items should – or should not – be protected under attorney-client privilege.
The FBI has already set up what is known as a “taint team” to look through the materials – those people are completely separate from prosecutors working on the Cohen case in the Southern District of New York, and would determine if any documents are protected.
Here’s the bottom line:
Bottom line from Cohen hearing: Judge rejects Trump's request to stop prosecutors from reviewing evidence seized, but hasn't decided on the process the review will take -- whether a special master, or a government taint team, or otherwise.
— Joe Schneider (@joe_in_nyc) April 16, 2018
Judge Wood denies TRO. Says no injunction ruling right now because it's too soon to know what docs are implicated in the Trump / Michael Cohen / Stormy Daniels review. But, in general, she has found the Manhattan US Atty's args most persuasive #SDNYStorm https://t.co/Ng2bSTkUcA
— Pete Brush (@PeteBrush) April 16, 2018
It sounds like this might be a partial victory for Cohen, but clearly not what he really wanted.