Mueller is working hand-in-hand with the New York Attorney General, so it's not clear that even firing Mueller could stop this investigation.
Andy Cuomo is in the driver's seat and has the means and intention to bring Trump down.
By "means" I include:
Team Trump has no real weapons. We pro-Trump observers are waiting patiently for an IG report. But even when that comes it isn't the same caliber of weapon as what Cuomo and Mueller are firing at Trump.
Just an ordinary day in 2018, when FBI agents are rifling through the president’s lawyer’s papers to find out about a hush-money payoff to a porn star.
Two things about this. One: It surely has to do with more than Stormygate. The FBI wouldn’t make a move this explosive because they’re worried about an undeclared two-year-old campaign contribution.
Two: Trump is going to blow a gasket, above and beyond his usual Russiagate indignation. With the possible exception of Keith Schiller, there may be no one in TrumpWorld who knows as many secrets as Michael Cohen. If he’s done anything in the past, Cohen not only would probably know about it, he might have the paperwork to prove it. I wonder who’s getting fired first — Sessions, Rosenstein, or Mueller himself.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan obtained the search warrant after receiving a referral from the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, according to Mr. Cohen’s lawyer, who called the search “completely inappropriate and unnecessary.” The search does not appear to be directly related to Mr. Mueller’s investigation, but likely resulted from information he had uncovered and gave to prosecutors in New York…
The payments to Ms. Clifford are only one of many topics being investigated, according to a person briefed on the search. The F.B.I. also seized emails, tax documents and business records, the person said.
The seized records include communications between Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen, which would likely require a special team of agents to review because conversations between lawyers and clients are protected from scrutiny in most instances.
Trump warned Mueller early on not to cross the line by expanding his investigation into Russia-related matters in 2016 into a full-blown investigation , his business, etc. Mueller’s answer appears to be, “Fine. If I stumble across anything unrelated to Russia, I’ll just hand that off to the relevant U.S. Attorney.” He won’t exceed the scope of his inquiry but others prosecutors will.
How unusual is it for the feds to raise a lawyer’s office? Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken White..
Imagine how many layers of approval it would require when it’s the president’s lawyer. At a minimum, notes White, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman (a Trump appointee) would have signed off. I wonder if Rod Rosenstein was consulted. The politics are so explosive that it’s unimaginable lower-ranking DOJ officials would have ordered it without letting the higher-ups know. :
3. A Magistrate Judge signed off on this. Federal magistrate judges (appointed by local district judges, not by the President) review search warrant applications. A Magistrate Judge therefore reviewed this application and found probable cause — that is, probable cause to believe that the subject premises (Cohen’s office) contains specified evidence of a specified federal crime. Now, Magistrate Judges sometimes are a little too rubber-stampy for my taste. But here, where the Magistrate Judge knew that this would become one of the most scrutinized search warrant applications ever, and because the nature of the warrant of an attorney’s office is unusual, you can expect that the Magistrate Judge felt pretty confident that there was enough there.
That raises the question: What could be so terribly incriminating that Berman, Rosenstein, and a federal magistrate judge would risk embarrassing Trump by doing something like this? What do they think Cohen has but hasn’t turned over that’s worth a raid?
Coincidentally, McClatchy published this story just three days ago: Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators this week questioned an associate of the Trump Organization who was involved in overseas deals with President Donald Trump’s company in recent years.
Armed with subpoenas compelling electronic records and sworn testimony, Mueller’s team showed up unannounced at the home of the business associate, who was a party to multiple transactions connected to Trump’s effort to expand his brand abroad, according to persons familiar with the proceedings.
Investigators were particularly interested in interactions involving Michael D. Cohen, Trump’s longtime personal attorney and a former Trump Organization employee. Among other things, Cohen was involved in business deals secured or sought by the Trump Organization in Georgia, Kazakhstan and Russia.
Maybe Mueller has information about a business deal not involving Russia and felt it’d be safer to refer that matter to the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan rather than pursue it himself and risk violating the boundaries of his Russiagate authority. The Stormy Daniels matter may be low-hanging fruit that Mueller’s interested in as a way to potentially flip Cohen. If he can find written evidence somewhere that Cohen made the payment with an eye to influencing the election, that would potentially make it easy to prove that it was in fact a campaign contribution for legal purposes — an undeclared one, for which Cohen could be punished. Unless he’s willing to cooperate.
Is he? The core, core, core duty of being Donald Trump’s “fixer,” one would think, is taking as many bullets as is necessary for the boss. If that means going to jail for a thousand years on contempt charges because you won’t testify against him, that’s what it means.
His lawyer is outraged: It wasn’t just Cohen’s law office either: It was more than that! Vanity Fair says they raided his hotel room as well. I wonder if that’s standard practice or if they feared Cohen might start destroying evidence in other locations once he found out that they were raiding another.
He’s now involved in two criminal investigations, one Mueller’s, the other the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s. That’s extra pressure to cooperate with Mueller, as he could conceivably be indicted by the DOJ in two different jurisdictions if he doesn’t. This is Russiagate’s boldest squeeze play yet.
“This is war.” Stand by for updates. https://hotair.com/archives/2018/04/09/oh-boy-feds-raid-michael-cohens-office-seize-material-related-payments-stormy-daniels-matters/
You are right, Prince Andrew and his rabid chihuahua weasel Eric Schneiderman would LOOOVE to be the Hangmen. All the while the Clinton Cabal laundered money through the “Foundation” and the “Global Initiative” and preyed on every person their slimy paws came in contact with, and yet, she walks free (or staggers)....
Go back to making Kung Fu Panda movies.
You are on to something.
I remember reading about a US Attorney for the Southern district of NY named Ed Schneiderman, who has a reputation very much like Andrew Weisman’s.
I think Mueller is in contact with him and sent him this referral. All a scheme. I pray to God lawyers for Trump are like DeGenova, Tom Fitton, Greg Jarret and other smart, conservatives step forward and finally do away with Mueller and his band of corrupt hoodlums.
I doubt we'll ever see an IG report but if we do, it won't be favorable to Trump...Obviously the corruption goes deep and wide...