President Trump’s lawyers argued Friday that records seized by the FBI from Trump’s personal lawyer’s office are protected by attorney-client privilege, according to The Associated Press.
The Trump team made its case before a federal judge during a hearing in Manhattan. Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen is seeking a temporary restraining order to block federal investigators from using the records seized during the raid of his office Monday.
Lawyers for both Cohen and Trump said they wanted to review the records seized before federal prosecutors begin examining them.
An attorney for Trump also told the judge that the president has “an acute interest in this matter.”
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Attorney-client privilege has been at the center of the debate surrounding the raid on Cohen.
Trump, following the raid — which he described as an attack on the country — tweeted that “attorney-client privilege is dead.”
Attorney-client privilege in intended to offer protections for lawyers so that they can engage in a frank discussion with clients they are seeking to defend. But the American Bar Association has stated that discussions concerning future wrongdoing, such as fraud, should not be protected by the privilege.
The FBI agents reportedly sought records tied to payments made to two women alleging affairs with Trump, as well as evidence that Cohen tried to conceal disparaging information about Trump during the 2016 campaign
Trump allies fear that the agents also took recordings Cohen made of private conversations.