Raid related to payments to Trump’s accusers, sources say

WASHINGTON — U.S. federal agents who raided the office of U.S. President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, were looking for information about payments to a former Playboy playmate and a porn actress who claim to have had affairs with Trump, two people familiar with the investigation said Tuesday.

Public corruption prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan are trying to determine if there was any fraud related to the payments to Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, according to one of the people.

McDougal, a former playmate, was paid $150,000 US by the parent company of the National Enquirer for her story, though the magazine never published it.

Cohen paid $130,000 to Daniels as part of an agreement, made before the 2016 election, to keep her from going public with her allegations.

A warrant used in the raid Monday specifically authorized agents to seize records related to McDougal, said one of the people, who demanded anonymity to discuss the confidential details.

The payments appear to be part of a pattern of Trump’s self-described fixer trying to shield the businessman-turnedpolitician from embarrassing press by buying women’s silence.

The new details on the Cohen raid, first reported by the New York Times, emerged as the president boiled over on Twitter about it and evidence that investigators are zeroing in on his inner circle. The raid on Cohen was not carried out by special counsel Robert Mueller’s team.

But the president’s ire has been directed at Mueller and his boss, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. On Monday, Trump called Mueller’s investigation “an attack on our country” and suggested he was considering firing the special counsel.

The White House remained defiant that the president has the power to directly fire Mueller — despite Justice Department regulations saying otherwise. The regulations say only Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller last May, has the authority to fire him and only for specific cause.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday that Trump “certainly believes he has the power” to fire Mueller, though he isn’t taking that step now. She echoed Trump’s frustration, saying he believes federal authorities have “gone too far” by seizing communication between a lawyer and his clients.

The president himself blasted out his displeasure early Tuesday, saying on Twitter: “Attorney-client privilege is dead!”

In fact, attorney-client privilege is not absolute and can’t be invoked when the discussion was part of an effort to commit a crime.