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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Biggest District Court Hearing Since Watergate
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2018/4/16/122926/846The Biggest District Court Hearing Since Watergate
by BooMan
Mon Apr 16th, 2018 at 12:29:26 PM EST
There will be a hearing today in Manhattan to discuss what will be done with the materials the government seized from Michael Cohen last week. It will probably be the most significant event in a U.S. District Court since James McCord sent his letter to Judge John Sirica on March 19, 1973. After that letter, it was only a matter of time before the ugly truths behind the Watergate break-in became known to investigators and the public.
President Trump knows the government probably now has possession of enough incriminating material to end his presidency and land him in prison for the remainder of his days, so the only remaining option is to fight to prevent the government from reading what they have. Judge Kimba Wood will decide if that is the correct way to deal with this mess. I dont think she will rule with the president.
Whats being debated is who gets to review the material seized from Cohens home, office and hotel room one week ago. After learning that the government planned to have a taint team start reviewing the material it had seized from Cohen last Friday, Cohens legal team filed a motion for a temporary restraining order on Thursday night. In short, they want to have the determination of what is or isnt privileged made not by government officials but by themselves or, at least, by a third party called a special master
Trumps team wants Cohens team to review the seized material and then to get a copy of the material related to the president. In court on Friday, Trumps attorneys seemed content to have a third-party review the material to determine what might or might not be privileged. In a letter filed with the court on Sunday night, though, Trumps position was that the only acceptable way of evaluating what was or wasnt privileged was to turn the material over to Cohens team to make that assessment.
Trumps team wants Cohens team to review the seized material and then to get a copy of the material related to the president. In court on Friday, Trumps attorneys seemed content to have a third-party review the material to determine what might or might not be privileged. In a letter filed with the court on Sunday night, though, Trumps position was that the only acceptable way of evaluating what was or wasnt privileged was to turn the material over to Cohens team to make that assessment.
The president has characterized the warrants that were issued to seize Cohens record as a violation of attorney-client privilege, but the government has had Cohen under surveillance for some time and has already been reading his emails, and they clearly had compelling reasons to believe that Cohen might destroy evidence rather than produce it in response to an ordinary subpoena. They also seem to have evidence of crimes Cohen may have committed in relation to his ownership of New York City taxicab medallions. When an attorney and client are engaged in a criminal conspiracy, the attorney-client privilege doesnt hold, so the types of things that the taint team would be looking to withhold from investigators are records of routine business Cohen did with Trump or other clients. So far, Cohen has produced evidence of serving only three clients, one of which is still unknown. The other two are the president and Elliot Broidy (a finance chairman for the RNC who used Cohen to cover up an affair with a Playboy playmate that resulted in her pregnancy and a subsequent abortion). So, the routine business wasnt all that routine.
The hearing is set for 2pm, and it should be a circus with porn star Stormy Daniels in attendance. If the president cant pry these documents out of the hands of prosecutors, his whole world will collapse.
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The Biggest District Court Hearing Since Watergate (Original Post)
babylonsister
Apr 2018
OP
honest.abe
(8,678 posts)1. Love it!
This could be the beginning of the end for the Orange Loon.
kentuck
(111,101 posts)2. I think a bi-partisan group of Senators should be the team to look at it.
That way, they can kill two birds with one stone. If impeachment comes up, they have already seen the evidence.