Special Master in Cohen case finds 172 documents the FBI shouldn't have...

Let's be clear, if not for the lawsuit, and if not for the appointment of a Special Master to oversee the raid on Michael Cohen, the FBI would have had unfettered access to 172 different documents that they should have never been allowed to look at.

Of the overall challenges from the Cohen attorneys, the Special Master only disagreed with them three times.

Cohen critics will argue that the 172 documents is only a small percentage of the documents that were seized. But given they took "everything" they could get their hands on, the chances are that probably 99% of what they seized was basically irrelevant to much of anything. At the end of the day, 172 independent items is a number worth protecting.

My guess is that much of what they actually "hoped" to have been able to review has been sifted away as privileged or highly personal. Time will tell if the FBI found what they were looking for, but it certainly appears in retrospect that Cohen and his attorneys were right to take this to court, and the judge was right to appoint an independent master to wallow through everything.