![handle is hein.journals/capulr48 and id is 1 raw text is:
USING POLICY TO RESOLVE THE CIRCUIT SPLIT OVER
THE CRIME-FRAUD EXCEPTION TO THE ATTORNEY-
CLIENT PRIVILEGE
BLAKE R. HILLS*
I. INTRODUCTION
In early 2018, the FBI raided the office of the personal attorney for the
President of the United States to look for evidence of illegal payments to an
adult-film actress.' This action resulted in a legal dispute about whether the
materials that were seized were protected by the attorney-client privilege or
whether the crime-fraud exception to the privilege applied.2 Although
individual presidents and adult-film stars will come and go, the need for
clear rules on the crime-fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege will
not.
Everyone who has watched a modern police drama is familiar with the
pre-interrogation warning: [y]ou have the right to remain silent and the
right to talk to a lawyer, from Miranda v. Arizona.3 But what does the right
to talk to a lawyer mean? Does it mean that a client has an absolute right to
speak to a lawyer without the contents of that conversation ever being
revealed? Or does it mean that the government can become privy to some
attorney-client conversations? If the government can become privy to some
conversations, what is the standard for determining when this should be
allowed?
* Prosecuting Attorney, Summit County Utah Attorney's Office. J.D., S.J. Quinney
University of Utah College of Law (1998). The views and opinions expressed in this article
are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Summit County
Attorney's Office.
1 See Matt Apuzzo, F.B.L Raids Office of Trump's Longtime Lawyer Michael Cohen:
Trump Calls It 'Disgraceful', N.Y. TIMEs (Apr. 9, 2018), httns.//wwwmntimes.com/
201 8/04/0 9/us/politics/fbi-mids-office-of-liu m s-longtime-4awver-mchael-cohen. html
[https://perma.cc/RYA2-JMZQ].
2 See Jan Wolfe, Factbox: How Does U.S. Attorney-Client Privilege Rule Apply to FBI
Raid on Trump's Lawyer?, REUTERS (Apr. 16, 2018), https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-
trump-russia-privile ge-factbox/factbox-how-does-u-s-attorney-client privileg ue-eapples
to-fbi-raid-on-tramps-lawyer-idUSKBNIHN32R [https://perma.cc/M8QP-W66H].
3 384 U.S. 436, 444 (1966) (holding that appropriate procedural safeguards are to be used
to protect a suspect's right against self-incrimination and to inform the suspect of the right to
counsel).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/capulr48&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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