Feds reassemble shredded docs, access encrypted messages from Michael Cohen raids

Federal prosecutors in New York revealed on Friday that they had pieced back together shredded documents found during search-warrant raids in April targeting Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney.

Lawyers from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan also said they’d managed to download the contents of one old BlackBerry found in the raids, as well as messages from encrypted apps, including WhatsApp and Signal, found on newer phones.

“Approximately 731 pages of messages, including call logs,” were found on those apps and were turned over to Cohen’s lawyers on Friday to be reviewed for potentially privileged materials like attorney-client communications, as well as “highly personal” information, prosecutors said.

The disclosures came in updates submitted on Friday to U.S. District Court Judge Kimba Wood, who is overseeing a process to review objections that Cohen, Trump and the Trump Organization raised to the immediate examination of the Cohen by prosecutors investigating him.

The retired judge whom Wood appointed to manage that process, Barbara Jones, told the court on Friday that either Cohen or Trump or his companies had retreated from a few of their privilege claims. So far, just a tiny fraction of the material seized appears to be privileged and unlikely to be disclosed to prosecutors.



https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/15/michael-cohen-shredded-documents-feds-650382