Payment for Trump talk probed; FBI raids Cohen’s office, hotel room

WASHINGTON — The special counsel is investigating a payment made to President Donald Trump’s foundation by a Ukrainian steel magnate for a talk during the campaign, according to three people briefed on the matter, as part of a broader examination of streams of foreign money to Trump and his associates in the years leading up to the election.

Investigators subpoenaed the Trump Organization this year for an array of records about business with foreign nationals. In response, the company handed over documents about a $150,000 donation that the Ukrainian billionaire, Victor Pinchuk, made in September 2015 to the Donald J. Trump Foundation in exchange for a 20-minute appearance by Trump that month through a video link to a conference in Kiev.

Michael Cohen, the president’s personal lawyer whose office and hotel room were raided on Monday in an apparently unrelated case, solicited the donation. The contribution from Pinchuk, who has sought closer ties for Ukraine to the West, was the largest the foundation received in 2015 from anyone besides Trump himself.

Cohen is under federal investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign finance violations, according to three people with knowledge of the case.

FBI agents on Monday seized records about Cohen’s clients and personal finances. Among the records taken were those related to a 2016 payment Cohen made to adult-film star Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had a sexual encounter with Trump, according to another person familiar with the investigation.

Investigators took Cohen’s computer, phone and personal financial records, including tax returns, as part of the search of his office at Rockefeller Center, the second person said.

In a broad seizure, federal prosecutors collected communications between Cohen and his client, including those between the lawyer and Trump, according to both people.

The raids, part of an investigation referred by special counsel Robert Mueller to federal prosecutors in New York, point to escalating legal jeopardy for a longtime Trump confidant who is deeply intertwined in the president’s business and personal matters.

Stephen Ryan, an attorney for Cohen, called the tactics “inappropriate and unnecessary,” saying Cohen has “cooperated completely with all government entities, including providing thousands of nonprivileged documents to the Congress and sitting for depositions under oath.”

Among the records seized by investigators were “protected attorney client communications,” Ryan said.

Two of the potential crimes being investigated — bank fraud and wire fraud — suggest prosecutors have some reason to think Cohen may have misled bankers about why he was using particular funds or may have improperly used banks in the transfer of funds.

Cohen has acknowledged facilitating a $130,000 payment in October 2016 to Daniels, who claims she had a sexual relationship with Trump in 2006.

Trump made his first comments about the payment last week, saying he did not know about the transaction.

The tactics by prosecutors drew the president’s ire. As Trump sat down for dinner Monday with military leaders at the White House, he repeatedly called the raid “a disgrace,” saying that he and his administration are the subject of unfair, baseless and misguided investigations.

“I have this witch hunt constantly going on for over 12 months now or longer,” he said. “It’s an attack on our country in a true sense; it’s an attack on what we all stand for.”

Revisiting his grievances about Mueller and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Trump complained about what he suggested was a concerted and sometimes partisan effort to target his leadership. He noted that he has been urged to fire the special counsel, calling Mueller’s investigators “the most biased group of people.”

The special counsel subpoena is among signs in recent months that Mueller is interested in interactions that Trump or his associates had with countries beyond Russia, though it is not clear what other payments he is scrutinizing.

Mueller also ordered the Trump Organization to turn over documents, emails and other communications about several Russians, including some whose names have not been publicly tied to Trump, according to the three people, who would not be named discussing the ongoing investigation. The identities of the Russians were unclear.

Mueller has also examined a deal Cohen was putting together with Trump to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Trump said last summer that Mueller should not look at his or his family’s finances beyond issues related directly to Russia.

But the special counsel’s investigators have questioned witnesses about whether money from the Persian Gulf had been used to finance Trump’s political efforts and asked for information on Pinchuk.

The inquiry into the Trump Organization’s payments from foreign nationals underscores how diffuse Trump’s sources of income have been over many years. And the destination of Pinchuk’s donation — the Trump Foundation instead of the president’s personal coffers — raised fresh questions about how the president handled the entity he set up to deal with charitable giving.

Trump’s appearance was broadcast at the Yalta European Strategy conference, which promotes pro-European Union policies for Ukraine. Through his own foundation, Pinchuk sponsors the affair, which typically attracts wellknown former Western leaders like former Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain and former President Bill Clinton.

Information for this article was contributed by Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman of The New York Times, and by Carol D. Leonnig, Tom Hamburger, Devlin Barrett, Mark Berman, Emma Brown, Josh Dawsey, Anne Gearan, Rosalind S. Helderman, Beth Reinhard, Philip Rucker, Matt Zapotosky and Spencer S. Hsu of The Washington Post.