Cohen Team: DOJ Cant Review Seized Docs Because of Impartiality Concerns

[turbinetree]

Source: Talking Points Memo

By Allegra Kirkland | April 16, 2018 11:19 am

Aiming to leverage the White House’s campaign to discredit the FBI and Justice Department, attorneys for Michael Cohen are claiming that federal prosecutors can’t fairly sort through a trove of documents seized from their client.

In a Monday letter to Judge Kimba Wood, Cohen’s team wrote that either they or an independent third party — known as a special master — should conduct the initial review of the materials, to filter out anything protected by attorney-client privilege and avoid “even the appearance of impropriety.”

Appointing a special master “will protect the integrity of the Government’s investigation from the toxic partisan politics of the day and attacks on the impartiality of the Justice Department and the USAO.”

Of course, the brunt of those attacks have come from President Donald Trump, for whom Cohen has long acted as a fixer. In tweets, public statements and interviews, Trump has for months argued that shadowy “deep state” officials at the FBI and DOJ are hopelessly biased against him.

Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/cohen-lawyers-impropriety-justice-department-review-seized-materials

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"Either they are a special master should conduct the initial review"--------------right, let the fox guard the chicken house mentality...........................


November 2018 cannot get here fast enough

[BumRushDaShow]

1. I thought I read that the FBI already had a "dirty team" and a "clean team"

just for that purpose.

[getagrip_already]

4. they do....

the lawyers are claiming they are doj so they aren't impartial. nonesense, but that is their claim.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. For my 31,000th post

(since I blew through #30,000 and missed it... )

I will say that their argument is complete bullshit. What do they want? Keystone Cops LLC., private contractor, to sift through this stuff?

[YessirAtsaFact]

2. This will only work if the judge watches Fox new and listens to hate radio

Otherwise, no way.

[NewJeffCT]

6. Kimba Wood is a Democrat

and was Bill Clinton's second choice to be Attorney General after Zoe Baird's nomination tanked due to Nannygate, but before Janet Reno finally got the role.

[YessirAtsaFact]

7. I know-was making a joke

I’m beginning to wonder if these ridiculous motions are just for Trump’s base.

[NewJeffCT]

11. I think so they can show Trump they're doing something

and also delay the case until they can find the right person to bribe and/or intimidate

[neohippie]

3. Who is Cohen hanging out with

I mean Cohen sure isn't helping himself to look very innocent when he is hanging out with these characters from Trump's Russian deals

Link to tweet

Michael Cohen is spending a lovely 80-degree day with his friends, outside his Manhattan hotel, smoking a cigar. On the right: Rotem Rosen. Rotem Rosen and Alex Sapir accompanied Donald Trump on his 2013 trip to Russia.

Rotem Rosen is the "right hand man" of real estate magnate and Putin ally Lev Leviev. Here's Ivanka at the bris Leviev organized for Rosen.

Let's see who else is in that first photo. In the back on the left: Jerry Rotonda, former CFO Deutsche Bank. Rotem Rosen and Jerry Rotonda recently launched a development firm targeting NYC properties with Indian billionaire Anand Mahindra.

The guy in the grey shirt is Dan Elituv, CEO of Gottex Models, Ltd. Elituv bought Gottex in 2009 from Lev Leviev, a Soviet-born oligarch with close ties to Putin. In 2015 Kushner Companies bought a stake in the old New York Times building from Lev Leviev.

Here is the thread roll up for this https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/984902943064420352.html

[DRoseDARs]

8. Sooo... instead of the list of clients the judge ordered them to provide, they turn in this?

Is that correct? Isn't that contempt of court?

[flor-de-jasmim]

9. Wait - Cohen wants to avoid anything that will give EVEN THE APPEARANCE OF IMPROPRIETY? ROFL!

[Botany]

10. So the FBI can not look at the evidence they got in the raid w/out Cohen's OK?

[niyad]

12. soooo--let me see if I understand this -- the DOJ cannot be trusted to be impartial, therefore

donnie's lawyers (who are, of course, the souls of impartial rectitude) should oversee the evidence???

did a four-year old pen the request? because no sane adult could put forth that argument with a straight face.

is there enough caffeine intake possible for their statement to make sense? or alcohol, either one.

[YessirAtsaFact]

13. Trumps actual concern is that the review will be impartial

Using Trump-logic, it’s only fair if someone tips the scales in Trump’s favor

[SWBTATTReg]

14. Doubt this request by tRUMP will go anywhere...

Especially since there was apparently feelings that evidence would be destroyed...