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.
Lying about an affair previous to becoming POTUS, but while being POTUS.
Is this a move to protect Hillary and Obama by trying to blow President Trump out of office before he is able to get Jeff Sessions out of bed and sic him on Hillary and the Russian Uranium deal?
Q talks about white hats vs black hats. He talks about green and red castles. He claims that if something he says is verified then he is speaking the truth. So far nothing has happen despite Q being around for 5 full months. Sessions has done absolutely nothing to help the USA or POTUS. Even if he does have 1.3 Trillion Sealed Indictments he has no idea what to do with them.
Sometimes “timing is everything”. Sessions missed the boat entirely. Now step aside and let the Sessions A$$Ki$$ers blame Trump, Global Warming, The NWO, etc... Mueller needs to be arrested “yesterday”. Comey needs to be Indicted along with many other Swampers. I can’t believe Trump wants to wait until he is impeached before he decides to fight back. Maybe he listens to Q?
they should raid Mueller’s house
If the lawyer did pay from his own pocket, it is (they will say) a campaign contribution. If Trump paid, they will charge the lawyer with some kind of obstruction, for lying about having paid. They will try to get Trump’s own lawyer to roll on him.
Can we fire him now?
Jeff Sessions, wake up!
no way Cohen flips! Fire Rosenstein etc now...
It does not matter!! The ends justify the means for the criminal rats, and it WILL affect the midterms! This should not be allowed, and must be stopped NOW!
Who made the call for this raid Mueller or Sessions?
Stop undercutting the President.
VERY interesting-——good find.
.
Total guess on my part: Mueller is looking to flip the “Stormy” story into an illegal campaign contribution. If anything, this should disabuse Trump from being interviewed by Mueller. He’s not a friend.
Mueller is looking for anything that might be used to impeach Trump. The phony Russian collusion narrative has come up empty so the FBI has been sent to look for anything... my bet is they are seeking possible campaign finance violations in the payments to Stormy Daniels. When is the AG or somebody going to end this never ending investigation? I am hoping that Comey and Mueller will eventually be implicated in the Clinton Foundation money laundering or covering up Hillarys numerous breaches of national security. The Reign of Terror in the French Revolution ended when the chief architects, Danton and Robespierre were themselves sent to the guillotine.
Agree. That is the crux of many of our problems. A massive centralized government is trying to rule us.
Its not at all what the Founders envisioned. They would be sickened by what our government has become.
They’re looking for FEC violations regarding the alleged 130K hush money.
Oh, I am sure they found a treasure trove of impeachable offense evidence.
< /sarcasm>
This was an intimidation move, just like it was on Manafort.
It wont work Mueller. Youve failed. Bigly.
Yes. Mueller is beyond desperate.
He’s got squat.
But, that won’t keep the media from saying that Cohen is about to turn.
IT’S ALL SO LAUGHABLE
Hillary is cackling and getting a real kick out of this news as well.
If they were at full force, we might achieve a large enough yield to shut the investigation down!
So this two-bit whore is going to bring down Trump?
I think President Trump has been taking the long view on this, and he's as prepared as anyone could be.
If anyone thinks the next several years will be anything other than a bare-knuckle political fist fight—at the very least, and with actual civil unrest lurking just beneath the surface—then they haven't been paying attention the last 2 years.
One way or another, this is for keeps. If people think that anything about this Revolution depends only on one man, they're not aware if the real situation. President Trump is a latecomer to this party. Hopefully, he will not be an early-goer. Either way, when he one day leaves the political stage, others will step into the breach.
Here's the deal: either We The People are going to Drain the Deep State Swamp, or the Deep State Swamp is going to drain We The People. There's no middle ground. Make no mistake—we are at a critical moment in History.
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?
No, I didnt expect miracles.
Uh huh. Sure.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.