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Tuesday, March 19, 2024 | Back issues
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No Shield Over Schneiderman Chats in Cohen Probe

An attorney who claimed to have spoken to President Donald Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen about disgraced ex-New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s accusers has no grounds for a protective order, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

MANHATTAN (CN) – An attorney who claimed to have spoken to President Donald Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen about disgraced ex-New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s accusers has no grounds for a protective order, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

The former counsel to “New York madam” Anna Gristina, a suburban mother who pleaded guilty to promoting prostitution, Peter J. Gleason pushed his way into the already sensational criminal investigation of Cohen in a letter earlier this month tying Trump to the Schneiderman scandal.

Days after Schneiderman resigned following a New Yorker investigation reporting physical abuse allegations by four women, Gleason claimed to have spoken to Cohen and a New York Post reporter about two other women.

In a brief order Thursday, U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood found that Gleason had no claim to attorney-client privilege over the conversations he described.

“Mr. Gleason appears to be arguing that the ‘common interest’ exception to waiver of the attorney-client privilege should apply to those disclosures,” the single-page order states. “However, Mr. Gleason's submission does not allege facts that meet the test for a finding of ‘common interest,’ which requires that the parties and their respective counsel have decided upon and undertaken a ‘joint defense effort or strategy.’”

Gleason did not immediately respond to a telephone request for comment.

Categories / Courts, Politics

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