Trump ‘livid’ as federal probe grows
UNITED STATES: Federal prosecutors investigating President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, are seeking records related to two women who received payments in 2016 after alleging affairs with Trump years ago – adult film star Stormy Daniels and ex- Playboy model Karen McDougal, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The interest in both Daniels and McDougal indicates that federal investigators are trying to determine whether there was a broader pattern or strategy among Trump associates to buy the silence of women whose accounts could harm the president’s electoral chances, and whether any crimes were committed in doing so, one of those people said.
Investigators are also seeking all communications about Daniels and McDougal between Cohen, David Pecker – a personal friend of Trump and chief executive of American Media Inc, which publishes the National Enquirer – and Dylan Howard, the chief content officer of American Media.
Daniels is co-operating with federal prosecutors, according to a source familiar with the investigation.
The high stakes of the case were underscored by the involvement of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who approved the move to seek a search warrant for Cohen’s records, which included raids on Tuesday on his home and office, according to two people with knowledge of the investigation.
The raids infuriated Trump, who was left ‘‘stunned’’ and ‘‘livid’’, according to an outside adviser in frequent touch with the White House.
Trump privately continued to gripe yesterday about Rosenstein, who is also overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, according to people familiar with the situation.
McDougal has said she had a 10-month relationship with Trump beginning in 2006 and then sold her story to American Media for US$150,000 about three months before the 2016 election. No story on McDougal appeared.
Several legal experts noted that public statements by Cohen and Trump that the president was unaware of the payment may have significantly aided federal prosecutors’ legal arguments to justify searching the lawyer’s office, home and hotel room. If both the lawyer and the client insisted Trump had no idea that Cohen had made the payment, they could not assert that those activities were protected by attorney-client privilege, they said.
On Capitol Hill, Republicans were divided over Trump’s implicit threats to possibly fire Mueller, while legislation to protect the prosecutor remained stalled.
Senate judiciary committee chairman Charles Grassley, of Iowa, said it would be ‘‘suicide’’ for the president to move to remove Mueller as special counsel.
– Washington Post