The federal court’s opinion stated that the government could access certain information not protected by attorney-client privilege, pointing to possible …

The Justice Department has spent months investigating a bribery-for-pardon scheme, even as President Donald Trump was running for reelection, according to court documents unsealed Tuesday.
In a 20-page heavily redacted opinion, dated Aug. 28 but posted Tuesday evening, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell wrote that attorney-client privilege didnt protect certain communications if they were alleged to be part of a bribery-for-pardon scheme. The communications involved in the bribery investigation had been copied to a third party who was not an attorney, the opinion stated. 
In sum, the attorney-client privilege does not protect communications disclosed to third parties and, here [redacted] was such a third party to each of the emails submitted by the government, the Aug. 28 opinion states. Howell, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, presided over special counsel Robert Muellers grand jury investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The court documents reveal that dozens of devices were seized after an unidentified office was searched in response to a warrant. The federal agents were investigating a secret lobbying scheme in which certain people acted as lobbyists to senior White House officials, without complying with the registration requirement, to secure a pardon or reprieve of sentence.
The filings did not reveal the names of specific individuals or provide the dates of the alleged actions.