President Donald Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen has been under criminal investigation for months, largely centering around his business dealings, federal prosecutors in New York said in court documents obtained by ABC News. 
 
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 Today, prosecutors acknowledged publicly for the first time Friday that they seized records this week from Cohen. 
 
 The revelation came as Cohen and Trump sought a court order barring federal prosecutors from accessing the records they took during raids on his home and office Monday morning. 
 
 Lawyers for Cohen and Trump, neither of whom was present in court, argue that at least some of the records are subject to attorney-client privilege and should not be viewed by prosecutors until they, or an independent third party appointed by the court, have a chance to review the material. 
 
 Cohen "applied [Thursday] evening for an opportunity to take the first cut" at determining whether the documents are privileged or relevant to the investigation, Judge Kimba Wood said. "Both parties recognize the search of an attorney's devices and offices are subject to special consideration." 
 
 Jeenah Moon/Reuters 
 
 A hearing Friday in Manhattan federal court was put on hold until Monday after an attorney for Trump intervened and requested additional time. 
 
 "He as an acute interest in these proceedings," said Joanna Hendon, an attorney for the president who said she was hired Wednesday night. 
 
 Hendon noted the "exceptional nature" of her client and expressed concern about the prosecutors' internal "taint team" that separates evidence that is privileged from evidence that is available for prosecutors to view. 
 
 "We don't need to rush," Hendon said. "There is an appearance of fairness problem." 
 
 A taint team is a group of people who help determine what falls under attorney-client privilege and should not be shared with investigators. It's standard when searching a lawyer's office. 
 
 “The government’s use of a filter team appropriately protects applicable privileges," the court documents obtained by ABC News state. 
 
 Monday’s search was broader than previously reported: in addition to Cohen's home and office, there were court-authorized searches of a safety deposit box and two cellphones. 
 
 Cohen “is being investigated for criminal conduct that largely centers on his personal business dealings,” according to court documents. 
 
 The federal prosecutor’s office “has already obtained search warrants -- covert until this point -- on multiple different email accounts maintained by Cohen, and has conducted a privilege review of the materials obtained pursuant to those warrants,” the court documents state. 
 
 That review, prosecutors said, showed that Cohen "is in fact performing little to no legal work and that zero emails were exchanged with President Trump." 
 
 Cohen has not been charged with anything. He has not responded to news he is under investigation, declining to comment when contacted by ABC News. 
 
 Justin Lane/EPA via Shutterstock 
 
 Thomas McKay, one of the prosecutors handling the case, said the president's attorney-client privileges are no different than anyone else's. He accused the president and Cohen of delay tactics but promised prosecutors would not view any of the seized material until the judge makes her ruling following the hearing on Monday. 
 
 Also at issue was how much of this dispute will happen in open court. News organizations objected to parts of the hearing -- originally scheduled without notice -- taking place outside of public earshot. 
 
 “I don’t take this position lightly,” said Wood. 
 
 Rachel Strom, an attorney for ABC News, successfully argued to keep most of the hearing open to the public. 
 
 "This is the most important hearing that’s happening today and the public has a right to know how the court is going to handle the search of the president’s lawyer’s documents," Strom said. ||||| (CNN) Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's personal attorney, has been "under criminal investigation" for months in New York because of his business dealings, the Justice Department said Friday. 
 
 The revelation comes amid a courtroom drama that unfolded Friday, as Cohen's attorneys and Trump's attorneys began a fight hours before with the US Attorney's Office in Manhattan over a massive raid of Cohen's records. 
 
 Cohen's attorneys have filed a temporary restraining order in the matter, asking the court to stop federal prosecutors from using some of the records they seized. Cohen did not appear in court Friday morning and has not been charged with a crime. 
 
 In response to Cohen's motion to prevent prosecutors from using evidence collected in Monday's raids of his home and office, the US attorney in New York asserted the raids were authorized by a federal judge to seek evidence of conduct "for which Cohen is under criminal investigation." 
 
 A court filing did not detail what Cohen is under investigation for. 
 
 But the filing contains the first details released by the Justice Department on the searches, which covered Cohen's residence, hotel room, office, safety deposit boxes and two cell phones. Previous search warrants allowed New York federal prosecutors to search multiple email accounts, the filing said. In them, they found that Cohen had done "little to no legal work, and that zero emails were exchanged with President Trump." 
 
 The prosecutors assert that they have confidence that any seized material would not fall under the significant amount of attorney-client privilege that Cohen has claimed. They said Cohen has told at least one witness that his only client was Trump. 
 
 The prosecutors noted Cohen had personally not turned over any documents to Robert Mueller's Special Counsel investigation. Initially, Mueller had requested some records from Cohen while he was with the Trump family company — a position he held for about a decade — yet dropped the request after Cohen pushed back. Mueller's office referred the case about his business dealings to New York but hasn't been involved since, the Manhattan prosecutors said. 
 
 Monday's raids included a search for communications related to efforts to suppress negative information ahead of the election, including communications that Trump had with Cohen regarding the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape that captured Trump making lewd remarks about women that surfaced a month before the election, CNN reported this week 
 
 It also potentially involved records related to porn star Stormy Daniels, who was paid $130,000 weeks before the election to silence an alleged affair she had with Trump. Records related to Cohen's taxi medallion business were also sought. 
 
 Prosecutors say they've set up what's known as a " taint team " or "filter team" to review Cohen's documents so nothing they seized is used improperly or breaches client confidentiality. 
 
 Each search warrant specifically describes how records seized that may fall into attorney-client privilege will be filtered out by a team that's walled off from the federal agents who have conducted the investigation, the prosecutors wrote. 
 
 Once they've reviewed the records, the filter team can give to the investigators communications "between Cohen and persons with whom Cohen undisputedly does not have an attorney-client relationship," likely meaning the records wouldn't be between Cohen and Trump, prosecutors said. The filter team is working from a list of individuals and companies they've compiled regarding people who aren't Cohen's legal clients. 
 
 Cohen's lawyers, for their part, have asked to review the material for themselves, a proposal which the Manhattan prosecutors are fighting. 
 
 The Southern District of New York prosecutors also heard from Trump Organization lawyers, who want them to throw out all communication between Cohen, the company and its employees. 
 
 Following the hearing Friday, the judge ordered the parties to return to court Monday for another hearing, where Cohen will have to be present. 
 
 Joanna Hendon, a new lawyer for Trump who appeared in court, said her law firm, Spears & Imes LLP, was engaged by Trump on Wednesday and she was "not prepared" to present her argument. 
 
 The Justice Department is asking for a so-called taint team to vet the material seized in the raids Monday, as is standard process. Cohen's lawyer is asking for the lawyers themselves to review the material or a "special master" to decide what is relevant to the case, and Hendon is concerned about a taint team or however the material is handled. 
 
 On Monday, Cohen's attorney called the searches "completely inappropriate and unnecessary." 
 
 "It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his client," attorney Stephen Ryan said in the statement. 
 
 Michael Avenatti, a lawyer for Stormy Daniels, also made an appearance at the hearing. In a footnote in its filing, the prosecutors expressed doubt that any communications between Trump and Cohen regarding a payoff to Daniels before the election would be covered under attorney-client privilege. They cited the President's own comments.
– Trump attorney Michael Cohen is indeed under criminal investigation. That might not be a huge shock given that FBI agents raided his office earlier this week, but the Justice Department revealed that fact for the first time in a court document Friday, reports CNN. Cohen “is being investigated for criminal conduct that largely centers on his personal business dealings,” according to the document, though any further details were redacted. Another nugget: The raid turned out to be more extensive than thought, reports ABC News, with agents also searching a safety deposit box and two cellphones, in addition to Cohen's home and office. All of this came to light as part of a legal fight related to the raid. Attorneys for Cohen and President Trump want to block federal prosecutors from the seized documents until it can be properly determined if any should be shielded by attorney-client privilege. Friday's hearing in Manhattan was pushed into Monday when an attorney hired Wednesday by Trump, Joanna Herndon, requested more time. "He has an acute interest in these proceedings," she said of the president.