Thread by @KlasfeldReports

Good morning from New York.

News moves quickly, and two new motions hit the docket this morning: one from prosecutors and another by Stormy Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti.

More developments when the hearing starts in about 10 minutes.

Background: courthousenews.com/thursday-heari…

That preview article features commentary and analysis by @JoyceWhiteVance.

I understand that attorney Michael Cohen just arrived in court, dutifully attending the proceedings ever since U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood slammed him for being absent for the first hearing.

Reporters have a lot of pre-hearing reading today.

Government's letter motion (6 pages)

documentcloud.org/documents/4447…

Stormy Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti's memo supporting a motion to intervene (103 pages!)

dropbox.com/s/xw5kiu41niku…

And we begin.

Judge Wood takes the stand. The attorneys introduce themselves.

McKay: "As we said in our letter of this morning, the headline is... we're on schedule" with their production of files to Cohen.

Prosecutor McKay: The hard drives are in the gigabytes, not terabytes.

Government will provide the hard copy documents by tomorrow.

Two blackberries were seized.

Blackberries take longer to extract, prosecutor says.

He added that iPhone was also seized which also takes time.

Everything has been "forensically processed," McKay said.

Cohen attorney: This morning at 7:58 a.m., we received back the first hard drive.

"Everything has been working just as we represented to the court since our last visit."

Breaking:

Judge Wood: "The letters that I received for counsel for Mr. Cohen and the intervenors has convinced me that" this process can go quickly with a special master.

Wood: I will appoint a special master.

Wood makes this ruling even though prosecutors have "integrity and decency and could do the job" with their own taint team.

Judge Wood appoints Bracewell's Barbara Jones bracewell.com/people/barbara…

Interestingly, that name did not appear on any parties list of suggestions for special master supplied to the court. courthousenews.com/michael-cohen-…

* party's

Trump's attorney Joanna Hendon is up.

Hendon said that the government's taint team would not be performing a simultaneous review.

Wood: That's my understanding.

Wood grants Stormy Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti's motion to intervene.

Prosecutor McKay objects. He wants briefing on the matter.

That's the say, McKay wants a chance to argue whether or not Stormy should join the case.

McKay is not asking for a denial - just a chance to review Avenatti's motion.

Wood: I will grant you that opportunity.

Avenatti is now up, sharing his privilege concerns.

"We have reason to believe that Mr. Davidson continued to communicate about my client" in the lead up to the FBI raid, Avenatti says.

Davidson was Stormy's prior attorney.

"We just want a seat at the table," Avenatti says.

Wood says that she doesn't see any flaw with Avenatti's proposal.

McKay says he just wants the opportunity to respond and not get sidetracked.

Wood: I will hold off on a ruling on Mr. Avenatti's motion to intervene.

Avenatti clarifies that he is not asserting that Stormy had an attorney-client relationship with Cohen.

McKay wants Wood to set a time frame to make privilege determinations.

Wood: Initially, I would defer to the special master.

But the judge invites the parties to share their proposals.

Wood gets into the mechanics and technology of contemporary e-discovery, expressing confidence that the designated special master has the right tools.

Meanwhile, a developing story: courthousenews.com/judge-in-cohen…

Cohen's attorney: "We embrace the court's order."

He says that Barbara Jones is a "wonderful choice."

The attorney is Stephen Ryan, who urges the judge not to set a deadline for the special master.

McKay: "I think, however, it is very important to provide the documents to the taint team" because "they have to be informed to make their objections."

Prosecutor McKay expresses concern that prosecutors might not know how to object if Cohen's privilege assertions are overbroad.

"The filter team takes its job very seriously" and wants to make "informed objections," McKay said.

Wood says that she's not making a ruling on that issue today and will see whether the special master wants to reach a compromise.

Side note: McKay keeps referring to the special master "Judge Jones," as the newly appointed special master is a retired federal judge here at SDNY.

There's a debate over the scope of Jones' task: Is she looking out for only privileged docs, or also non-responsive ones.

Wood offers a hypothetical of coming across a file about a child's medical file showing a broken ankle.

That'd be clearly unresponsive.

Prosecutor McKay doesn't want Jones to make responsiveness determinations, only privilege determinations.

Citing hypothetical family photos, Cohen's attorney claims that the government would look at files outside the warrant's scope. Wood rejects that.

Cohen's lawyer: They've got all this stuff that's not in the warrant and they want to look at it.
Wood: I don't think so.

McKay says his concern is "mission creep," a special master looking for privileged files is now looking for non-responsive files.

Prosecutor McKay says that the concern is elevated through e-discovery.

If Jones selects keywords that she deems non-responsive, McKay warns, some files may fall through the cracks.

"It's dramatically expanding the scope of what she's trying to do," he says.

Wood: I would assume anything that you say to the special master could be communicated to me and the government.

Cohen's lawyer: Yes.

McKay warns that the process would "dramatically" delay the investigation to make responsiveness review part of the special master's task.

"The concern is one of attorney-client privilege," he says, adding that it's a "very serious expansion" of the special master's scope.

Trump Organization's attorney on the process for the privilege review: "Our position is we're not taking a position."

Avenatti's up and wants a deadline for the government's position on his motion to intervene.

McKay: "I haven't had the chance to read Mr. Avenatti's" motion, which is more than 100 pages and was filed minutes before the hearing.

Wood adjourns and adds that she's keeping the May date.

For the next proceedings, that is.

More updates and analysis coming up soon.

In case you missed it, University of Alabama Law professor @JoyceWhiteVance's analysis before today's hearing in an interview with me held up nicely.

The professor noted why Judge Wood would be inclined to appoint a special master.

courthousenews.com/thursday-heari…