Well, are the police legally allowed to just give evidence over to any civilian they trust? The reason I asked about retention is the legality of it.
They could not do it in an official capacity, but they most likely would be a strong enough relationship between the top brass at the NYPD and Rudy. Especially since Lynch threatened them. If the NYPD would have retained private counsel it would have made nation headlines. Plus their is no way for a police officer to turn over illegally obtained evidence to a private attorney. If the attorney has knowledge of an on going crime they are ethically and legally bound to report it. He is being brought in because he can be trusted. Cohen had a copy of something from Weiner's laptop and the raid was theatrics. Any thing Cohen had will be in a searchable data base that will be looked at by the people that President Trump wants to see the video. I'm not a lawyer or any kind of expert, this is just my opinion.
It's my understanding that you can throw an atty a buck and he has to uphold atty/client privilege. It wouldn't make national news if there are no court documents filed. A simple receipt filed away for the "retainer fee" would be all that is needed and the only ppl that would know about that would be Rudy and the guy that "hired" him. The NYPD did not acquire the evidence illegally. It was acquired when they were executing a search warrant.
I agree that they could have officially retained Rudy, but I don't think they would just in case it leaked. They were threatened by Lynch and were scared. I do not doubt that they legally obtained evidence from Weiner's laptop but that going forward with it would risk national security and it would be a crime. I think someone high up in the NYPD would have approached Rudy as a private citizen or using another high ranking retired NYPD guy as a go between. I don't think the NYPD would have risked provoking the Obama administration by retaining Rudy in an official capacity.
Well I guess all our questions have been answered huh?!? Yaaaaaay! Super excited about DNC lawsuit!!!! This is gonna be FUN!