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.
Is this asshole accountable to anybody? Does the Constitution mean anything anymore? This farce is either going to be brought to a halt, or there are going to be lots of dead bureaucrats - including Mueller and his gang of Clinton cronies.
If it’s not too late and it probably is, if Trump is to survive he absolutely must fire Rosenweasel or Sessions. This was obvious a year ago yet nothing.
Part of Sundance’s big ugly? All of this due to Sessions’ recusal.
But the Qooks say “Trust Sessions...”.
Will you stop blaming the President for what Mueller is doing? The fault lies with Jeff Sessions and his Swamp Thing buddies in the senate and elsewhere.
Hannity just reported on his radio show that the fbi raises both his office and home. This is OUT OF CONTROL. I’m pissed off.
They’re using parallel construction.
Mueller hasn’t learned anything from his obsession with Steven Hatfill, another innocent man.
“Is this asshole accountable to anybody? Does the Constitution mean anything anymore?”
No, not anymore. See my tagline.
Last week, a Trump hater started a fire in Trump Tower and killed an elderly man.
This past weekend the liar media insinuates that Melania Trump wants to divorce her husband but is staying in the interest of their son.
Today, Mueller’s minions raid the offices of Donald Trump’s personal attorney to retrieve whatever they can find related or unrelated to what they were originally tasked to investigate.
Michael Cohen is a very smart lawyer and person. He know how dirty this game is. It’s a good bet he anticipated this aggression from the Mueller camp.
A lawyer-client relationship is not sacrosanct if there is evidence that the lawyer and the client are co-conspirators in a crime.
Mueller did not do the raid.
Mueller heard she drinks Stolichnaya
Looking on the bright side, I think it’s safe to say that any potential for Trump to allow himself to be interviewed by Mueller is now out of the question. I think Mueller’s action here says something in that regard, too. Mueller’s greatest wish has to be to get Trump to sit down with him in order to create a perjury trap, yet he goes and triggers this idiotic raid which he must know would end any chance of a Trump interview. Mueller must have nothing times 1000 to try such a pathetically desperate ploy.
And the totally useless GOP stands by and does nothing. Make no mistake about it, they are complicit in this lawlessness.
NY office.
q is playing with his tip.
Look for heinrich to start SWAT-ing church confessionals next.
If Trump and Cohen saw this coming, then the files should be empty. :-)
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