THREAD: Back of the envelope thoughts on the FBI raid of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's office: 1/
This was a referral by Mueller to the FBI & US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, suggesting this is NOT part of Mueller's investigation but rather Mueller obtained evidence relevant to potential crimes outside his scope 2/
That suggests that there is a second federal criminal investigation focusing on Michael Cohen based in NY under traditional (non-Special Counsel) structures 3/
An FBI of a lawyer's office raises lots of sticky issues related to attorney-client privilege and litigation work product, however, one of the exceptions to the attorney-client privilege is the crime/fraud exception 4/
The crime/fraud exception applies where there is evidence the attorney's assistance was obtained in the furtherance of that crime or fraud in ongoing or future-contemplated criminal conduct 5/
The US Attorney Manual contains some specific guidance on searches of attorney offices, such as here: justice.gov/usam/tax-resou… 6/
Here's a law review article on the topic in the University of Chicago Law Review: chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewconten… 7/
Here's another arguing that current law allowing for such seizures should be tested in an adversarial proceeding before the search is executed (but recognizing no such requirement): digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/cgi/viewconten… 8/
See more relevant info in the US Attorney's Manual here: justice.gov/usam/usam-9-19…
^search
I’m sure you all recognize that “back of the envelope” means based on the representations made to date – we will know a lot more of / when prosecutors speak 10/
