Cohen tells judge he’ll take Fifth in civil case

Michael Cohen, the longtime attorney of President Donald Trump, told a federal judge on Wednesday that he will invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself in a lawsuit brought by adult entertainer Stormy Daniels.

Cohen’s declaration, in support of his request to pause proceedings in the civil case, cited an ongoing federal criminal investigation.

Earlier this month, the FBI raided Cohen’s home, office and a hotel room where he had been staying. That investigation includes looking into the effort to quash embarrassing stories about Trump during the 2016 campaign, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Daniels, who alleges that she had an affair with Trump years ago, is seeking to void a confidentiality agreement she signed days before the 2016 presidential election in exchange for $130,000. Cohen has said he facilitated the payment using his own money from a homeequity line of credit.

In the filing Wednesday, Cohen said the FBI had seized “various electronic devices and documents” that contained information relating to the payment to Daniels, as well as related communications with Cohen’s attorney, Brent Blakely.

U.S. District Judge James Otero in California must decide whether there is evidence of enough overlap between the civil case and the criminal investigation to justify a pause.

“This is a stunning development,” Michael Avenatti, a lawyer for Daniels, said in a tweet. “Never before in our nation’s history has the attorney for the sitting President invoked the 5th Amend in connection with issues surrounding the President. It is esp. stunning seeing as MC served as the ‘fixer’ for Mr. Trump for over 10 yrs.”

It is not uncommon for defendants facing both civil liability and criminal prosecution to request a pause in civil proceedings to avoid giving sworn testimony and producing documents that could prove incriminating.

Even so, in 2016, Trump sneered at aides to Hillary Clinton for exercising their right not to self-incriminate during a congressional investigation into her private email server.

“The mob takes the Fifth,” Trump said at one campaign rally. “If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?”

In 1990, Trump took the Fifth to avoid answering 97 questions in a divorce deposition.