President Donald Trump told the Fox News morning show "Fox & Friends" on Thursday that Michael Cohen, his longtime attorney, handled only a "tiny fraction" of his legal work.

Cohen is the focus of a federal criminal investigation.

The next hearing in his case is set for Thursday afternoon.

In a filing, the government used Trump's comments as evidence that few of the documents seized in a series of raids are likely to contain privileged information.

President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested that Michael Cohen, his longtime attorney, handled only a small portion of his legal work.

Meanwhile, a criminal investigation involving the lawyer is centering on how much evidence obtained by the government in a series of raids falls under attorney-client privilege.

During an interview on Thursday with the Fox News morning show "Fox & Friends," Trump said Cohen handled a "tiny, tiny fraction" of his "overall legal work."

In a filing later Thursday, the government cited the comments as evidence that "the seized materials are unlikely to contain voluminous privileged documents."

The FBI raided Cohen's office and hotel room earlier this month as part of a criminal investigation into whether Cohen violated campaign finance laws or committed bank fraud, The Washington Post reported. Prosecutors haven't disclosed what exactly they are looking into, though they said in a court filing that "the crimes being investigated involve acts of concealment."

Cohen is said to have been a cause for worry in the White House in recent weeks. People close to Trump have suggested Cohen is likely to "flip," or cooperate with the government by providing information about others in exchange for a lesser punishment. Cohen has not been charged with a crime.

Cohen, who for years has been a close friend and adviser to Trump, has expressed intense loyalty to the president. He once reportedly said he would "take a bullet" for Trump, and he has handled sensitive matters related to him, including paying the porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 shortly before the 2016 election to ensure her silence about an alleged affair with Trump.

In the Thursday interview, Trump suggested that the investigation into Cohen was connected more to his business dealings than to his legal career.

"Michael is in business — he is really a businessman, a fairly big business, as I understand it," Trump said. "I don't know his business, but [the investigation] doesn't have to do with me."

Cohen "also practices law," Trump said, but "I would say probably the big thing is his business, and they're looking something having to do with his business."

Though Trump said Cohen's legal work for him was minimal, he said the lawyer "represents me on some things," mentioning "this crazy Stormy Daniels deal."

Trump said he had been told he wasn't involved in the Cohen investigation.

"From what I understand," he said, "they're looking at his businesses."

A hearing is set for Thursday

Michael Cohen. Yana Paskova/Getty Images The next hearing is scheduled for Thursday in federal court in Manhattan. US District Judge Kimba Wood could determine whether to appoint a special master to oversee the review of documents.

The special master would be an outside third party who would initially review the documents seized during the FBI's raids and determine whether something falls under protected attorney-client privilege and what prosecutors could use against Cohen.

Raiding an attorney's office is a last-resort option for the Justice Department when it fears that documents could be destroyed if they were sought in any other way.

Trump and Cohen don't quite see eye to eye on a special master.

After seeking to allow Cohen to review the documents, Cohen's attorneys sought the appointment, while Trump has offered to review them himself.

The government opposes such an appointment, insisting that a so-called taint team of prosecutors could do the initial document review effectively. It argues that the case does not present special circumstances that differentiate it from others in which protocol is a taint team.

Wood has signaled that she's open to using a taint team or appointing a special master, for whom Cohen's attorneys and federal prosecutors have submitted a list of candidates.

Observers told Business Insider that Wood would be more likely to select one of the government's nominees, who are retired judges from the Southern District of New York; Cohen's team submitted names of former federal prosecutors.