Posted on 04/09/2018 1:24:44 PM PDT by gattaca
The FBI raided the offices of President Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen on Monday.
The raid came after federal prosecutors in New York City obtained a search warrant following a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller, Cohen's lawyer told the New York Times. Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and related issues.
NBC News confirmed news of the raid.
The Times reported that FBI agents seized records relating to several issues, including a $130,000 payment Cohen has said he made to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Daniels has said that money was given to her in exchange for her agreement to keep quiet about an affair she had with Trump that began in 2006. The White House has denied that Trump had sex with Daniels, and Trump has said he was unaware of the deal Cohen made with her.
In addition to records related to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, FBI agents also seized emails, tax documents and business records, according to the Times, which cited a person briefed on the search.
Cohen is an executive vice president and general counsel of the Trump Organization.
It was not immediately clear where the raid occurred. Vanity Fair reported that FBI agents on Monday visited a room at the Lowes Regency Hotel in Manhattan, where Cohen has been staying and executed the warrants.
Cohen's lawyer, Stephen Ryan, said, "Today the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York executed a series of search warrants and seized the privileged communications between my client, Michael Cohen, and his clients. I have been advised by federal prosecutors that the New York action is, in part, a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller."
"The decision by the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York to conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary," Ryan said.
"It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his clients. These government tactics are also wrong because Mr. Cohen has cooperated completely with all government entities, including providing thousands of non-privileged documents to the Congress and sitting for depositions under oath."
Trump's spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told CNBC that the White House has no comment on the raid.
Spokesmen for the FBI's New York field office and for Mueller did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests for comment.
Q & Sundance just left for Belize.
I suspect her crack is already large enough, she doesn’t need another bag of it.
Hillary Clinton was treated completely differently in September 2016:
"The FBI's notes confirm that her former chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, was among the several lawyers representing Clinton in her FBI interview. Mills was hip-deep in the events at the heart of the FBI's criminal investigation and was herself a material witness who had previously sat for her own interview. Yet not only was she allowed by the Department of Justice to participate as counsel in Clinton's interview, her communications with Clinton and other material witnesses also were actively protected by the Department of Justice throughout the criminal and civil investigations.""Typically, the DOJ would look askance where a material witness sought to act as a lawyer for the subject of a federal criminal investigation. In Mills's case, Justice lawyers went out of their way to accommodate this highly unusual dual-hat role. For those who wonder whether Clinton's FBI interview was all for show, Mills's participation as a lawyer should be Exhibit A."
"Mills, who was a regular correspondent with Clinton on Clinton's home-brewed email, testified as a fact witness about her personal knowledge of Clinton's email setup in both the FBI investigation and related civil depositions. At the same time, Mills purported to represent Clinton as her lawyer. Mills was not, however, a lawyer for Clinton during her tenure at the State Department. Her title was "Chief of Staff and Counselor." But the "counselor" position was, according to Mills's testimony in one of the many Clinton email FOIA cases, "not a lawyer role"; it was a "policy role." Mills contends that, after leaving the State Department in 2013, she was hired by Clinton as her personal lawyer to coordinate the response to State's demand for return of her emails."
Source: The Weekly Standard, The Curious Case of Cheryl Mills
The Mills "lawyer" scam was worked up so she WOULD NOT have to testify against Clinton and DOJ went out of their way to go along with the scam and charade. Now the same DOJ is happily going after PRESIDENT Trump's lawyer about a possible payment to a whore. The Clinton deal was about her email server where she probably conducted illegal business for personal profit, a serious crime against the nation.
This continues to stink to high heaven. The damned deep state / swamp creatures are so hard to kill.
“Didn’t some other presidential case get pooh-poohed because “it was just about sex”?”
Imagine if Ken Starr had raided the offices and home of Bill Clinton’s personal attorney. The outrage emitting from the media and every Democrat politician would have been overwhelming. It would have been a true constitutional crisis.
What are you talking about?
After nearly 30 years of epic corruption involving 95 percent of both parties in D.C., did ya think Trump, who's surrounded by corrupt career political insiders, would make all this right in 1 year?
Get real.
I see the usual MARYs are out in full force
I hope trump and his lawyer destroyed anything that is damaging.
What the hell...... the rule of law is already dead. If ol cankers can get away with it screw it...........
This entire farce of an “investigation” is a watershed moment in the country’s history. If they get away with this, it will provide final proof that the “consent of the governed” no longer means anything, and that our votes are worthless. The implication is staggering and will leave only two remaining options, submission to tyranny or revolt.
Yes, but sooner or later that warrant will have to stand for review. Someone (deep state) is taking a great risk to fabricate crime.
I personally don’t believe any crime will be found. This is an attempt to change the headlines from the impending IG report, and drive a different narrative ito the fall’s election. JMO.
Meh...it’s Monday. Time #6,325 that “Trump is Done”....
It is potentially an FEC case. An “in kind campaign contribution.”
Heck, for all we know Q IS Sessions. (kidding)
LOL! No pearl clutching gator!
My thoughts exactly. It’s high time.
Different people.
Michael Cohen is Trump’s lawyer.
Gary Cohn was Trump economic advisor.
FOX just reported that NY attorney was appointed by Trump.
No, THREE remaining options, submission to tyranny, revolt or go back to watching The Walking Dead.
Time to go medieval on their asses!
All those Democrats running to, and standing in front of cameras have more evidence against them than our President who is under investigation for a crime that has never been identified.
Pull the Mueller Special Counsel, fire everybody in the hierarchy of the F.B.I., and Justice, and put an end to the diversionary tactics of the leftist losers NOW.
Clean ‘em out, so this President can get on with the job of putting this Humpty Dumpty back together again.
I am not flipping, exactly. I just despise the F’N Bee Eye.
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