STRIP SEARCH
Feds raid Trump NY lawyer who paid off porn star
FBI investigators raided the New York offices of Michael Cohen yesterday, seizing e-mails possibly related to his paying pornstar Stormy Daniels (above) $130,000 to stay quiet about her affair with Trump.
The FBI raided the Manhattan office of President Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, on Monday, seizing records related to several issues — including payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, according to a person with knowledge of the warrants.
The move enraged Trump, who called it “an attack on our country . . . an attack on what we all stand for.”
“It’s a disgraceful situation,” Trump said at the White House ahead of a meeting with military leaders. “I have this witch hunt constantly going on.”
Manhattan federal prosecutors obtained search warrants for Cohen’s business records, including confidential client communications, after receiving a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, sources said.
Asked why he doesn’t fire Mueller, Trump replied, “We’ll see what happens . . . Many people have said, ‘You should fire him.’ ”
Cohen’s lawyer, Stephen Ryan, confirmed the search, which stems from information Mueller uncovered and gave to prosecutors in New York.
“Today, the US 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,” Ryan said in a press re-
lease Monday afternoon.
“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.”
Ryan called the warrants “completely inappropriate and unnecessary,” saying they “resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney-client communications between a lawyer and his clients.”
Under Justice Department regulations, Mueller is required to consult with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein if he comes across legal matters that fall outside his mandate, suggesting the porn-star payoff has nothing to do with Russian collusion.
Manhattan federal prosecutors are probing Cohen for bank fraud and campaign-finance vio- lations, The Washington Post reported.
A spokesman for the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
In addition to Cohen’s office, the FBI also raided his home and the Park Avenue hotel where he has been staying, according to reports. Agents seized Cohen’s electronic devices for business records, e-mails and information tied to his payments to Daniels, sources said.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006 and was paid $130,000 in a deal with Cohen, 51, shortly before the election to keep the alleged fling quiet.
The timing of the Oct. 28, 2016, agreement suggests it may have violated campaign-finance laws.
Because the funds were paid so close to that year’s Election Day, Nov. 8, the deal could be interpreted as a campaign expense “for the purpose of influencing the 2016 presidential general election,” the watchdog group Common Cause argued in a complaint filed with the Justice Department.
Cohen has claimed that Trump knew nothing about the hush money, and the president last week told reporters aboard Air Force One that he had no knowledge of the payment to Daniels.
A furious Trump claimed that news of the raid was responsible for Monday’s late-day drop in the stock market, even though the news broke just before the closing bell at 4 p.m.
“The stock market dropped a lot today, as soon as they heard the noise, you know, this nonsense that was going on,” Trump said. “It was up, it was way up. It dropped quite a bit at the end.”
He also railed against his attorney general, Jeff Sessions.
“The attorney general made a terrible mistake when he did this and when he recused himself, or he certainly should have let us know if he was going to recuse himself and we would have put a different attorney general in,’’ Trump said.
“So he made what I consider to be a very terrible mistake for the country,” he said.
He added of Mueller and the Russia probe, “Again, they found nothing, and in finding nothing, that’s a big statement.”
Trump insisted he did “the right thing” by firing former FBI Director James Comey.
“If you look at all of the things [Comey has] done and the lies and you look at what’s going on at the FBI, turned out I did the right thing,” Trump said.
Meanwhile, Daniels’ lawyer, Michael Avenatti, who is fighting her nondisclosure deal, vowed Monday to find the man who allegedly threatened her when she was walking with her daughter in 2011.
Daniels told “60 Minutes” last month that a man approached her and said, “That’s a beautiful little girl; it’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.”
Avenatti told CNN he’ll release a composite sketch of the man on Tuesday and will offer a “significant reward” for information on his identity.
“HAMILTON” is infuriating London. At Sunday night’s Olivier Awards — the British Tonys — the cast of LinManuel Miranda’s American history musical reportedly got more than twice as much rehearsal time as that of any other best musical nominee performing on the telecast. And the other contenders weren’t thrilled by the slight. “It’s not like they need [the exposure],” one peeved West End producer vented to The Post’s Johnny Oleksinski about the hip-hop musical’s big ticket sales.
In the end, “Hamilton” — which opened in London in December — took home the top prize, beating out British-born shows like “Girl From the North Country” and “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.” The Yankee import was nominated for 13 awards and won seven.
Endquote:
“PORNOGRAPHY is literature designed to be read with one hand.” — Angela Lambert