Trump reportedly doesn't know all the secrets Michael Cohen kept

(Image credit: Yana Paskova/Getty Images)

published 17 April 2018

It's not Perry Mason or Law & Order, but there's plenty of drama in federal Judge Kimba Wood's Manhattan courtroom over which of Michael Cohen's seized files federal prosecutors will be able to see, and when. In court on Monday, President Trump's lawyer Joanna Hendon asked Wood to allow Trump first review of the materials, and when Wood rejected the stay — she is considering a neutral "special master" or a "taint team" of federal prosecutors — Hendon said she has no idea what to tell Trump about what's in Cohen's files. "You're getting into areas that we don't need to address now," Wood replied, according to Bloomberg News. But what's in Cohen's files is very much on the minds of Trump and his allies, Axios reports.

"Cohen is a potential Rosetta stone to Trump's final decade in private life," Axios' Mike Allen writes. "Cohen knows more about some elements of Trump's life than anyone else — because some stuff, Ivanka doesn't want to know."

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"The media is excited about what might emerge from Cohen's legal travails, and for good reason," Tim O'Brien, who wrote a book about Trump, counters at Bloomberg View. But nobody should "assume that his evident downfall portends doom for Trump's presidency." Cohen has only worked for Trump since 2006, and he never had a leadership role at Trump's business. If prosecutors ever become interested in Jason Greenblatt, Trump's company's general counsel who signed off on almost every significant deal, or CFO Allen Weisselberg, O'Brien writes, then Trump is in serious trouble.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.