Saturday, April 14, 2018

A New Law Is Needed to Protect Lawyer-Client Communications


A New Law Is Needed to Protect Lawyer-Client Communications

by Alan M. Dershowitz  •  April 14, 2018 at 11:00 am
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Under current law, non-privileged material can be seized and examined by FBI agents and prosecutors, but it is often comingled with privileged information. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
The raid on President Trump's lawyer dramatically demonstrates the need for new legislation to assure that no FBI agents or US attorneys ever get to read privileged communications between a lawyer and a client, a doctor and a patient, a priest and penitent, or a husband and a wife.
Under current law, confidential material is read or listened to by a taint team comprised of FBI agents and prosecutors. The taint team then sends over to prosecutors all non-privileged material. But a number of FBI agents and prosecutors have already read and listened to the privileged material. They must be trusted not to leak it or misuse it in any way. Even if they don't, the very fact that government agents have been given access to the most confidential and sacred materials should trouble every American, because the government does have the right to seize material that is not privileged, and such material may be comingled with privileged material.
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