Trump’s ‘hush money’ lawyer raided
UNITED STATES: FBI agents have raided the home and offices of US President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer to seize documents said to be related to payments the attorney made to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Trump called the raid yesterday a ‘‘disgrace’’ and a ‘‘new level of unfairness’’. ‘‘I have this witchhunt constantly going on. It’s an attack on our country in a true sense,’’ he added.
Lawyer Michael Cohen, a stalwart defender of Trump, has acknowledged paying US$130,000 to Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election, saying he did so out of his own pocket. The actress, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has claimed that the payment was ‘‘hush money’’ to stop her speaking about an affair she had with Trump in 2006.
Investigators were said to be seeking the origins of the cash payment.
The FBI and the US attorney’s office were also said to be seeking emails between the White House’s former communications director, Hope Hicks, and Cohen regarding a false statement which Trump helped to draft. It related to a meeting in June 2016 between his son, Donald Trump Jr, and a group of Russians who claimed to have material that would damage Trump’s Democrat rival Hillary Clinton, courtesy of the Russian government.
Cohen’s own lawyer, Stephen Ryan, said federal agents ‘‘seized the privileged communications between my client, Michael Cohen, and his clients’’. He said he understood that the agents had been acting on a referral by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating allegations that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, and possible collusion between the Russia and the Trump campaign.
Trump yesterday pointedly refused to rule out sacking Mueller. ‘‘We’ll see what happens,’’ he said.
Cohen’s name appeared in a dossier compiled by former MI6 agent Christopher Steele, which alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. A trusted employee of Trump and a close friend of the family, Cohen was also said to have been involved in a plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, which ultimately came to naught.
Last September, Cohen was questioned by congressional committees conducting a parallel investigation into allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. He has denied the claims in the dossier and filed a defamation lawsuit against the research company that commissioned it.
Ryan added: ‘‘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.’’ The raid was first reported by
The New York Times, which suggested that it was not directly related to the Russia investigation but stemmed from information Mueller had uncovered and passed on to prosecutors in New York.
It said agents had recovered emails, tax documents and business records, citing an unnamed source.
Trump was said to have been aware of the raid before the news of it broke.
Last week Trump denied knowledge of the payment Cohen had made to Daniels. He has denied Daniels’ claim of an affair.
Cohen has said he raised the money for the payment by taking out a loan on his own home.
Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti said yesterday that he may delay releasing a composite sketch of the person he says threatened her in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011 to stay quiet, along with details of a ‘‘sizeable’’ reward for help identifying that person.