Michael Cohen Lawyers Ask for Prison Delay Claiming He ‘Recently’ Accessed Hard Drive With Trump-Related Files

Michael Cohen‘s lawyers are looking to buy their client some time out of jail by claiming he has recently gained access to a treasure trove of files related to President Donald Trump.

In a letter to Congressional Democrats published by The New York Times, attorneys Lanny Davis, Michael Monico and Carly Chocron claim their client has that the hard drive contains “important documents” among its more than 14 million files.

“Mr. Cohen was only recently able to access a hard drive with important documents,” the letter read. “Said drive contains over 14 million files, which consist of all e-mails, voice recordings, images, and attachments from Mr. Cohen’s computers and phones. To date, Mr. Cohen has located several documents that we believe have significant value to the various congressional oversight and investigation committees. Working alone, Mr. Cohen has only had the time to go through less than | percent of the drive, or approximately 3,500 files. Mr. Cohen needs time, resources, and assistance to separate out privileged and personal documents from these 14 million files to make the rest available for review by various congressional committees that have sought his help in fulfilling their Article I oversight responsibilities.”

So what is that Cohen’s attorneys want? They spelled it out in the letter’s closing paragraph.

It is our hope … that the Southern District of New York recognizes the need for Mr. Cohen to be readily available to Congress and to prosecutors conducting these investigations, such that his date to report for incarceration about four weeks from now will be substantially postponed while he is fully cooperating with prosecutors and Congress.”

The letter was addressed solely to Democrats because the lawyers say they are “not sure” any would be interested — given that “virtually every single Republican member during the public and private testimony used all their time to attack Mr. Cohen personally, rather than to ask substantive questions regarding possible wrongdoing by Mr. Trump.”

[featured photo via Getty Images]