The New York Times has reported that the FBI raided the office of President Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen. They seized documents related to a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an affair with Trump, along with other material after they received a referral from Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
From The New York Times:
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.“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,” said Stephen Ryan, his lawyer. “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.”
A source told the NYT that the authorities took “emails, tax documents and business records” along with the material on Daniels. The Wall Street Journal reported that a raid also took place at Cohen’s home.
The records include communications between Daniels and Trump even though communications between lawyer and client are protected.
Trump has called the raid “a disgraceful situation” and “an attack on our country.”
Brusk tweeted out that Trump watched the reports on TV of the raid. He also said that Trump knew about the raid before the NYT broke the story, but we do not know if he has spoken to Cohen.
Mueller has eyed Cohen for some time now in his Russian investigation. Last month, Mueller “requested documents and interviewed witnesses about incidents” that involved Cohen. The Washington Post noted that nothing shows any indication “that Cohen is a subject or target of the investigation.”
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