ON THE morning of April 10th, a day after the FBI raided the office and home of his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump declared on Twitter: “Attorney-client privilege is dead!” Moments later he tweeted, "A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!" It is true that communications between a lawyer and client are ordinarily protected from the prying eyes of investigators. The attorney-client privilege means that a client can speak candidly, providing his lawyer with information necessary to develop an effective legal strategy. Even an admission of having committed a crime in the past must be kept in confidence. How then did the FBI secure a warrant to raid Michael Cohen’s papers?
Several carve-outs limit the reach of the attorney-client privilege, and it appears that a “crime-fraud” exception—which covers any communication containing evidence that a client or lawyer is committing or planning to commit criminal or fraudulent activity—was at play in this raid. Communications between the parties showing that the lawyer-client...Continue reading
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