2016 ELECTION/LEGAL/MICHAEL COHEN/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WOMEN: “hen it comes to President Trump’s legal health and welfare, few recent events have borne as much potential risk as the extraordinary raids that federal agents conducted last month on Michael D. Cohen, his longtime lawyer and fixer. Seizing boxes of documents and about a dozen cellphones, iPads and computers, the agents were looking for evidence that Mr. Cohen broke the law in his wide-ranging business deals — among them, hush-money payments that he made to women who claimed they had affairs with Mr. Trump. While it is possible that the early-morning searches could eventually result in criminal charges, the broader inquiry that led to them is for now, bogged down in two legal disputes about the cache of materials that was seized. On Wednesday [5-30-18] morning, five sets of lawyers in the case are expected to appear in Federal District Court in Manhattan to work toward resolving both of the quarrels — negotiations that will affect how the case moves forward. But Judge Wood decided to appoint an independent arbiter, or a so-called special master, to review the materials. And for the past four weeks or so, the special master, Barbara S. Jones, a former federal judge, has been doing just that, slowly returning to the government those documents that are not protected by attorney-client privilege.”
-Alan Feuer, “Lawyers in Cohen Case to Appear in Court to Negotiate Disputes,” The New York Times online, May 29, 2018