FBI RAIDS TRUMP LAWYER’S OFFICE
Stormy payoff lawyer raided Feds have his communications with Don
PRESIDENT TRUMP’S personal attorney Michael Cohen was taken by Stormy on Monday when FBI agents raided his Manhattan office and hotel room and reportedly confiscated emails, business records and documents relating to a range of topics, including a payment to the porn star.
Federal prosecutors got search warrants for an office Cohen uses at Rockefeller Center and a room he is staying in at the Loews Regency Hotel on Park Ave. at E. 61st St. after receiving a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller, according to reports and Cohen’s lawyer, Stephen Ryan.
Just after 5 a.m. on Monday, a string of FBI vans pulled up on E. 61st St. Plainclothes agents went up to the lawyer’s hotel room with a warrant and returned with an iPad and a briefcase, a police source told The News.
About 12 hours later, Cohen brushed by reporters, without commenting, to enter the hotel.
Ryan said the raid was not linked to Mueller’s probe into Russian election meddling, but likely related to information investigators had uncovered and flagged for prosecutors in New York.
The raid was “completely inappropriate and unnecessary,” Ryan charged in a statement, adding that it “resulted in the unnecessary seizure” of records protected by attorney-client privilege, including communications between Cohen and Trump.
Cohen’s attorney did not elaborate on the nature of the seized documents, but a person briefed on the raid told The New York Times that agents confiscated emails and business records relating to a $130,000 payment Cohen made to adult film star Stormy Daniels just 11 days before the 2016 election. Agents also seized documents relating to possible bank fraud, the source said.
Daniels alleges she accepted the hefty payment from the presidential fixer in exchange for keeping quiet about having sex with Trump in 2006.
Trump was outraged by the raid, saying the FBI “broke in” and calling it “a witch hunt” and “an attack on our country.”
“It’s an attack on what we all stand for,” Trump told reporters during a White House press conference Monday night.
Trump went on to rip Mueller’s team of investigators as “the most biased group of people I’ve ever seen.” He would not rule out firing the special
counsel.
“Why don’t I just fire Mueller? Well, I think it’s a disgrace. We’ll see what happens,” the President said.
Experts noted that the raid bodes badly for Cohen — and, perhaps, for Trump as well.
The President may have violated federal election laws if he in any way coordinated or had knowledge of the payment to Daniels. He has denied any knowledge of the payment.
But the search warrant could likely only have been approved because prosecutors had strong evidence to suggest that Cohen and Trump have been involved in something illegal, according to Bradley Simon, a criminal defense attorney who previously worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in Brooklyn.
“It appears as if Cohen has gone beyond simply providing counsel,” Simon told the Daily News. “It sounds like he’s become a co-conspirator.”
Jeffrey Cohen, a Brooklyn-based family lawyer who has followed the Trump-Daniels scandal closely, noted it’s unusual for judges to approve search warrants that target communications protected by client-attorney privilege.
“This suggests that Cohen was used, either knowingly or unknowingly, to further a crime or fraud,” Jeffrey Cohen told The News.
“This is very bad news for Michael Cohen, and it may be very bad news for Donald Trump,” he said.
In addition to Mueller, Trump attacked Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama during his press conference.
“They’re not looking at the other side,” said Trump, who was flanked by Vice President Pence and John Bolton, who began his job as national security adviser Monday.
“They’re not looking at Hillary Clinton and all the horrible things that she did and all of the crimes that were committed. They’re not looking at all of the things that happened that everybody is very angry about.”
Both the FBI and Mueller’s office declined to comment.
Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, suggested the raid could signal a dramatic development for Trump and Cohen.
“An enormous amount of misplaced faith has been placed on MC’s shoulders,” Avenatti tweeted, using Cohen’s initials.
“If he does not hold up, this could end very very badly for DJT and others.”
Daniels is currently battling Trump and Cohen in court over a nondisclosure agreement she signed in exchange for the $130,000 hush money.
The 39-year-old porn star charges that the agreement should be torn up because Trump never signed it.
Avenatti filed a motion Monday demanding that Cohen and Trump testify under oath to set the record straight about how much the President knew about the payment to Daniels.
Cohen acknowledged earlier this year that he made the payment, but he has refused to explain why or whether he was ever reimbursed by Trump or his campaign.
In his first public repudiation of Daniels’ steamy claims, Trump told reporters onboard Air Force One last week that he had no knowledge of Cohen’s payment.
When asked if he knew of the nondisclosure agreement, Trump demurred: “You’ll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney.”