President Donald Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen has been under criminal investigation for months, largely centering around his business dealings, federal prosecutors in New York said in court documents obtained by ABC News. 
 
 Interested in Donald Trump? Add Donald Trump as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Donald Trump news, video, and analysis from ABC News. Add Interest 
 
 Today, prosecutors acknowledged publicly for the first time Friday that they seized records this week from Cohen. 
 
 The revelation came as Cohen and Trump sought a court order barring federal prosecutors from accessing the records they took during raids on his home and office Monday morning. 
 
 Lawyers for Cohen and Trump, neither of whom was present in court, argue that at least some of the records are subject to attorney-client privilege and should not be viewed by prosecutors until they, or an independent third party appointed by the court, have a chance to review the material. 
 
 Cohen "applied [Thursday] evening for an opportunity to take the first cut" at determining whether the documents are privileged or relevant to the investigation, Judge Kimba Wood said. "Both parties recognize the search of an attorney's devices and offices are subject to special consideration." 
 
 Jeenah Moon/Reuters 
 
 A hearing Friday in Manhattan federal court was put on hold until Monday after an attorney for Trump intervened and requested additional time. 
 
 "He as an acute interest in these proceedings," said Joanna Hendon, an attorney for the president who said she was hired Wednesday night. 
 
 Hendon noted the "exceptional nature" of her client and expressed concern about the prosecutors' internal "taint team" that separates evidence that is privileged from evidence that is available for prosecutors to view. 
 
 "We don't need to rush," Hendon said. "There is an appearance of fairness problem." 
 
 A taint team is a group of people who help determine what falls under attorney-client privilege and should not be shared with investigators. It's standard when searching a lawyer's office. 
 
 “The government’s use of a filter team appropriately protects applicable privileges," the court documents obtained by ABC News state. 
 
 Monday’s search was broader than previously reported: in addition to Cohen's home and office, there were court-authorized searches of a safety deposit box and two cellphones. 
 
 Cohen “is being investigated for criminal conduct that largely centers on his personal business dealings,” according to court documents. 
 
 The federal prosecutor’s office “has already obtained search warrants -- covert until this point -- on multiple different email accounts maintained by Cohen, and has conducted a privilege review of the materials obtained pursuant to those warrants,” the court documents state. 
 
 That review, prosecutors said, showed that Cohen "is in fact performing little to no legal work and that zero emails were exchanged with President Trump." 
 
 Cohen has not been charged with anything. He has not responded to news he is under investigation, declining to comment when contacted by ABC News. 
 
 Justin Lane/EPA via Shutterstock 
 
 Thomas McKay, one of the prosecutors handling the case, said the president's attorney-client privileges are no different than anyone else's. He accused the president and Cohen of delay tactics but promised prosecutors would not view any of the seized material until the judge makes her ruling following the hearing on Monday. 
 
 Also at issue was how much of this dispute will happen in open court. News organizations objected to parts of the hearing -- originally scheduled without notice -- taking place outside of public earshot. 
 
 “I don’t take this position lightly,” said Wood. 
 
 Rachel Strom, an attorney for ABC News, successfully argued to keep most of the hearing open to the public. 
 
 "This is the most important hearing that’s happening today and the public has a right to know how the court is going to handle the search of the president’s lawyer’s documents," Strom said. ||||| (CNN) Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's personal attorney, has been "under criminal investigation" for months in New York because of his business dealings, the Justice Department said Friday. 
 
 The revelation comes amid a courtroom drama that unfolded Friday, as Cohen's attorneys and Trump's attorneys began a fight hours before with the US Attorney's Office in Manhattan over a massive raid of Cohen's records. 
 
 Cohen's attorneys have filed a temporary restraining order in the matter, asking the court to stop federal prosecutors from using some of the records they seized. Cohen did not appear in court Friday morning and has not been charged with a crime. 
 
 In response to Cohen's motion to prevent prosecutors from using evidence collected in Monday's raids of his home and office, the US attorney in New York asserted the raids were authorized by a federal judge to seek evidence of conduct "for which Cohen is under criminal investigation." 
 
 A court filing did not detail what Cohen is under investigation for. 
 
 But the filing contains the first details released by the Justice Department on the searches, which covered Cohen's residence, hotel room, office, safety deposit boxes and two cell phones. Previous search warrants allowed New York federal prosecutors to search multiple email accounts, the filing said. In them, they found that Cohen had done "little to no legal work, and that zero emails were exchanged with President Trump." 
 
 The prosecutors assert that they have confidence that any seized material would not fall under the significant amount of attorney-client privilege that Cohen has claimed. They said Cohen has told at least one witness that his only client was Trump. 
 
 The prosecutors noted Cohen had personally not turned over any documents to Robert Mueller's Special Counsel investigation. Initially, Mueller had requested some records from Cohen while he was with the Trump family company — a position he held for about a decade — yet dropped the request after Cohen pushed back. Mueller's office referred the case about his business dealings to New York but hasn't been involved since, the Manhattan prosecutors said. 
 
 Monday's raids included a search for communications related to efforts to suppress negative information ahead of the election, including communications that Trump had with Cohen regarding the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape that captured Trump making lewd remarks about women that surfaced a month before the election, CNN reported this week 
 
 It also potentially involved records related to porn star Stormy Daniels, who was paid $130,000 weeks before the election to silence an alleged affair she had with Trump. Records related to Cohen's taxi medallion business were also sought. 
 
 Prosecutors say they've set up what's known as a " taint team " or "filter team" to review Cohen's documents so nothing they seized is used improperly or breaches client confidentiality. 
 
 Each search warrant specifically describes how records seized that may fall into attorney-client privilege will be filtered out by a team that's walled off from the federal agents who have conducted the investigation, the prosecutors wrote. 
 
 Once they've reviewed the records, the filter team can give to the investigators communications "between Cohen and persons with whom Cohen undisputedly does not have an attorney-client relationship," likely meaning the records wouldn't be between Cohen and Trump, prosecutors said. The filter team is working from a list of individuals and companies they've compiled regarding people who aren't Cohen's legal clients. 
 
 Cohen's lawyers, for their part, have asked to review the material for themselves, a proposal which the Manhattan prosecutors are fighting. 
 
 The Southern District of New York prosecutors also heard from Trump Organization lawyers, who want them to throw out all communication between Cohen, the company and its employees. 
 
 Following the hearing Friday, the judge ordered the parties to return to court Monday for another hearing, where Cohen will have to be present. 
 
 Joanna Hendon, a new lawyer for Trump who appeared in court, said her law firm, Spears & Imes LLP, was engaged by Trump on Wednesday and she was "not prepared" to present her argument. 
 
 The Justice Department is asking for a so-called taint team to vet the material seized in the raids Monday, as is standard process. Cohen's lawyer is asking for the lawyers themselves to review the material or a "special master" to decide what is relevant to the case, and Hendon is concerned about a taint team or however the material is handled. 
 
 On Monday, Cohen's attorney called the searches "completely inappropriate and unnecessary." 
 
 "It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his client," attorney Stephen Ryan said in the statement. 
 
 Michael Avenatti, a lawyer for Stormy Daniels, also made an appearance at the hearing. In a footnote in its filing, the prosecutors expressed doubt that any communications between Trump and Cohen regarding a payoff to Daniels before the election would be covered under attorney-client privilege. They cited the President's own comments. ||||| SHARE THIS ARTICLE Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email 
 
 After an afternoon of pitched arguments over who should have the right to vet documents seized from President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, a federal judge in New York delayed a decision on whether to appoint an impartial “special master” to conduct the review. 
 
 U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood said that federal authorities who seized documents from the lawyer, Michael Cohen, would provide copies to Cohen’s team. A lawyer for Cohen said they could provide a list of proposed special masters by Tuesday. The government will also provide names. 
 
 The judge voiced confidence in federal prosecutors and stressed that she didn’t want to slow down the matter. “I have faith in the Southern District U.S. attorney’s office that their integrity is unimpeachable,” Wood said. She said her interest is in “getting this moving”speedily and efficiently. 
 
 Prosecutors will consult with the filter team and the FBI to get a better estimate of the volume of records. They will supply Wood by early Wednesday with an estimate of how long it will take to get the records to Cohen’s attorneys. Lawyers for both sides will then confer about proposed electronic search terms for the documents. 
 
 A Matter of Speed (4:27 p.m.) 
 
 The judge signaled an openness to using a so-called taint team as suggested by the government, to consult with lawyers for Cohen and Trump and try to reach agreement on whether particular documents are protected. 
 
 There are two threads of argument in the courtroom. Lawyers for Trump and Cohen are arguing for a process that insures that attorney-client privilege is preserved. The government is saying that it has an option that would preserve due process, but without bogging down. 
 
 McKay, the assistant U.S. attorney, argues that the special master that the Cohen team favors would be an “extremely inefficient” process. “Where Mr. Cohen is now obviously under criminal investigation, he’s going to have even more incentive to drag things out by claiming privilege,” McKay said. 
 
 Meanwhile, he said, Hendon’s idea turns on finding time for the president to review documents and sign off on them. “It’s going to be very difficult for her to get the president of the United States’ time to consult a privilege log if there are 100 items on it,” McKay said. 
 
 A filter team, McKay said, honors the privilege as well as law-enforcement interests. If, for example, a government team reviewed 500 communications between Cohen and Trump and none of them had relationship to investigation, they wouldn’t forward them to investigators, the prosecutor said. The team would review documents twice before any go to prosecutors. 
 
 “It narrows the field,” he said. 
 
 Wood made at least one plea to keep things moving when Hendon pointed out she has no idea what to tell Trump about what’s in Cohen’s files. 
 
 The judge interrupted Hendon. “You’re getting into areas that we don’t need to address now,” Wood said. (Bob Van Voris) 
 
 Hannity on Air: ‘Michael Never Represented Me’ (4:01 p.m.) 
 
 Sean Hannity, who was poised to do a radio show when his name emerged in the court, said on air that he had asked Cohen for his perspective on some legal questions involving attorney-client privilege, but never talked to Cohen about any case involving a third party. 
 
 “I never paid legal fees to Michael,” Hannity said. “Michael never represented me in any matter.” He later added: I “may have” handed Cohen “ten bucks” and asked for attorney-client privilege. (Steven Dennis) 
 
 What’s a Privilege Log? (3:45 p.m.) 
 
 A privilege log is a document that gives information about evidence withheld on the basis of the attorney-client privilege, typically including the type of communication -- whether a letter, email or notes of a phone call -- along with the date and parties to the communication. 
 
 Trump’s lawyer, Hendon, acknowledged that privilege logs are “a real pain for everybody” but said they’re necessary to safeguard the privilege. 
 
 She argued that the attorney-client privilege has been recognized for more than 400 years and is one of the oldest legal privileges under common law. “It is a beacon to the world and to history,” she said. “Without it no client could speak freely with counsel, and no attorney could properly serve the client.” 
 
 Most people would react similarly if told that criminal prosecutors raided their lawyer’s office, seized materials related to their case and were told the prosecutors were going to review them to determine if they were privileged, she said. 
 
 “It is the client of the lawyer who owns the privilege. The purpose now should be on ensuring that the privilege is not invaded,” Hendon said. (Bob Van Voris and David Voreacos) 
 
 Judge Asks How Long a Record Review Would Take (3:39 pm) 
 
 The judge asked how long it would take for everything that was seized to be organized for review -- and how long Hendon’s client, the president, would have to devote to the task. McKay said that while some of the devices the FBI seized will need to be decrypted, most of the evidence could be posted “in a week or two.” 
 
 The government claims that for any communications between Cohen and Trump or another client, a so-called taint team will consult with lawyers for Cohen and Trump and try to reach agreement on whether particular documents are protected. Disputes will be brought to the court to determine the issue before the team investigating the case would have access to the documents. 
 
 McKay said that without a taint team, it could take a very long time for the defense to review the documents. He noted that in the Lynn Stewart case, there were just a few boxes and it took more than a year to complete the review. 
 
 Trump lawyer Hendon said she couldn’t estimate how long it would take to review the material until they know what has been seized. (Bob Van Voris and David Voreacos) 
 
 Invoking POTUS’s Name (3:18 p.m.) 
 
 Cohen’s legal team will invoke Trump’s name frequently in filings not because he was a Cohen client but because they want to slow down the case, McKay, the U.S. assistant attorney, said. “It is in Mr. Cohen’s interest to do so,” McKay said. 
 
 Wood seemed to voice skepticism about Cohen’s argument that they can move quickly to determine which documents are protected by the attorney-client privilege. “It’s not that you’re bad people. You’ve mis-cited the law,” she told a Cohen lawyer. (Bob Van Voris) 
 
 Hannity’s Journalism in New Light (3:08 p.m.) 
 
 No word yet why Hannity had engaged Cohen. Clearly there’ll be keen interest in the legal side of this matter. Until then the scrutiny may fall on what may have been hidden motivations behind his journalism. 
 
 Take this tweet from Hannity’s verified account on April 11: “Up next on #Hannity @michellemalkin & @SebGorka join me to discuss how the media’s anti-Trump agenda has hit a new low since the Michael Cohen raid.” 
 
 Hannity Responds to Disclosure He Is Third Client (3:03 p.m.) 
 
 “We have been friends a long time. I have sought legal advice from Michael,” Hannity told Rebecca Ballhaus of the Wall Street Journal. 
 
 Client No. 3 Is Sean Hannity (2:52 p.m.) 
 
 A gasp was heard in the courtroom when a Cohen lawyer disclosed the name of the third client: Sean Hannity. 
 
 Hannity is a Fox News host and has been one of the president’s most vocal on-air defenders. and a critic of Mueller’s probe. Trump often calls Hannity after his Fox News program, according to media reports. 
 
 “I understand he doesn’t want his name out there, but that isn’t the law,” Judge Wood said. (David Voreacos) 
 
 Judge Says Client No. 3 Must Be Named Publicly (2:46 p.m.) 
 
 Wood heard from various sides on whether Cohen must publicly reveal the identity of Cohen’s third client, and ordered him to do so. 
 
 A Cohen lawyer, Stephen Ryan, had said that the third client, whom Cohen initially would not name, told Cohen over the weekend not to allow his name to get out. The person is publicly prominent and Ryan offered instead to put the name in a sealed envelope for the judge, saying the client has said he’ll appeal if Judge Wood orders his name disclosed. 
 
 “At this point, no one would want to be associate with the case in that way,” Ryan said. “I can give you the name right now in a sealed envelope and provide it to the court.” 
 
 Robert Balin, a lawyer representing the press’s interests in the case, objected to allowing Client 3 to remain anonymous, saying there’s “intense public interest in the issues that are before this court.” (Bob Van Voris and David Voreacos) 
 
 U.S. Calls Cohen Argument Frivolous (2:42 p.m.) 
 
 McKay, the assistant U.S. attorney, said the government properly obtained search warrants, saying Cohen had made a “frivolous” argument that the raid violated his Fourth Amendment guarantees against unreasonable searches. 
 
 McKay said it’s improper to attempt to drum up media attention to the case and then cite that attention as a basis for their application for discretion. 
 
 “The only thing that makes this case unusual in any respect is that one of Mr. Cohen’s clients is the president,” McKay said, saying that neither party has made a persuasive argument as to why the materials are privileged. (David Voreacos and Chris Dolmetsch) 
 
 ‘Taint Team’ (2:39 p.m.) 
 
 Cohen’s lawyers asked Wood to let them review the seized material first or, as a fallback, appoint a neutral special master to review evidence seized from Cohen. Trump’s lawyers didn’t support a special master. 
 
 The lawyers raised the case of Lynne Stewart, the former lawyer for imprisoned Egyptian cleric Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. She was convicted in 2005 of providing material support for terrorism. A jury found that she helped pass messages from her client to his followers in a foreign terrorist organization. In Stewart’s case the judge agreed with a defense request to appoint a special master. 
 
 Prosecutors argue that in many searches of lawyers’ offices a separate “taint team” of agents and prosecutors is selected to review the evidence and make an initial determination of whether they’re privileged. Once all disputes over privilege claims are resolved, the remaining documents are passed on to a “clean team” of prosecutors that hasn’t been exposed to the protected documents. 
 
 “Granting such relief would mark a serious departure from the accepted, normal practices of this district and erect an unprecedented and unwarranted obstacle to the government’s ability to investigate attorneys for their own conduct, in this case or any other,” the U.S. argued in a letter to the judge early Monday. (Bob Van Voris) 
 
 ‘Three Legal Clients’ (2:34 p.m.) 
 
 The Justice Department says Cohen has more attorneys of his own than he has clients, challenging Cohen’s prior claim that the materials swept up in the FBI raids included thousands of documents protected by the attorney-client privilege. 
 
 “His letter admits this morning that he has only three legal clients, and this is fatal to their motion,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas McKay. 
 
 Most of the evidence seized is on hard drives and other electronic devices and pertains to work he’s done in recent years, McKay said. Anything related to work Cohen did for legal clients would be a small portion of anything seized given how little work he’s done lately as a lawyer, he said. 
 
 Cohen’s arguments in a letter to the court earlier Monday -- saying he believed that privileged information had been taken relating to clients he’d represented years ago -- are therefore moot, McKay argued. 
 
 “Mr. Cohen might have a legal degree, but this investigation and the search is largely focused on his private business dealings and his private financial dealings,” McKay said (David Voreacos and Chris Dolmetsch) 
 
 Hearing Gets Under Way (2:12 p.m.) 
 
 
 
 The hearing over Cohen’s records got under way shortly after 2 p.m. Watching from the gallery was not only Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, but also former Governor Elliot Spitzer of New York, who made a surprise appearance for reasons that weren’t immediately clear. 
 
 Also in attendance is Robert Balin, a lawyer with Davis Wright Tremaine who said he’s representing a consortium of media outlets including ABC TV. He said he filed a request with Wood asking her to make an audio recording of the hearing available for the news media and the public. Balin told Bloomberg News that the practice is used by the Supreme Court and Second Circuit. (Patricia Hurtado) 
 
 Meet the Judge (2:12 p.m.) 
 
 Wood was nominated to the federal court by President Ronald Reagan in 1987 and confirmed the following year. In 1990, she sentenced Michael Milken to 10 years in prison, which was later reduced to two years. 
 
 President Bill Clinton nominated her as his pick for attorney general in 1993 after his previous nominee, Zoe Baird, withdrew over off-the-books payments to her nanny, an undocumented worker. Wood, who’d hired an undocumented babysitter before it was illegal to do so and paid the required taxes, was also withdrawn. 
 
 In 2010, Wood presided over a case against Anna Chapman and nine other Russian agents who were arrested and then deported in a prisoner exchange. (Bob Van Voris) 
 
 What’s at Stake 
 
 President Donald Trump is fighting an extraordinary legal battle in Manhattan on Monday, seeking to stop his own Justice Department from reviewing records seized from his longtime private lawyer, Michael Cohen. 
 
 Among those expected to attend a hearing at the federal district court in Manhattan is Stormy Daniels, the adult-film star who claims she had sex with Trump in 2006 and took a $130,000 hush payment shortly before the 2016 election. Cohen, who has said he made the payment from his own account, has been ordered to attend. 
 
 Michael Cohen outside court in New York on April 16. Photographer: Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images 
 
 Cohen’s home, office, hotel room and safety-deposit box were raided by the FBI on April 9 as part of a long-running criminal investigation of his activities. Prosecutors in New York haven’t identified what specifically they’re probing, although they said in a court filing that “the crimes being investigated involve acts of concealment by Cohen.” Special Counsel Robert Mueller is separately examining possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 election. 
 
 It’s unusual enough for federal agents to seize an attorney’s records, and unprecedented to take those of a president’s personal lawyer. Federal prosecutors want a team of government lawyers to review the material to determine what’s covered by the attorney-client privilege and what can be passed to investigators. 
 
 Cohen is asking for the review to be conducted by a court-appointed attorney. Trump will be represented by his own lawyer, Joanna Hendon, who has requested that the president be given a chance to review the seized materials, which includes more than a dozen electronic devices. 
 
 The matter will ultimately be decided by U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood. 
 
 — With assistance by Jeffrey Grocott, David Voreacos, Christian Berthelsen, Patricia Hurtado, Bob Van Voris, Chris Dolmetsch, and Steven T. Dennis
– Trump attorney Michael Cohen is indeed under criminal investigation. That might not be a huge shock given that FBI agents raided his office earlier this week, but the Justice Department revealed that fact for the first time in a court document Friday, reports CNN. Cohen “is being investigated for criminal conduct that largely centers on his personal business dealings,” according to the document, though any further details were redacted. Another nugget: The raid turned out to be more extensive than thought, reports ABC News, with agents also searching a safety deposit box and two cellphones, in addition to Cohen's home and office. All of this came to light as part of a legal fight related to the raid. Attorneys for Cohen and President Trump want to block federal prosecutors from the seized documents until it can be properly determined if any should be shielded by attorney-client privilege. Friday's hearing in Manhattan was pushed into Monday when an attorney hired Wednesday by Trump, Joanna Herndon, requested more time. "He has an acute interest in these proceedings," she said of the president.