More reason to ‘pee their pants’
The plot just keeps on thickening. Monday’s news that FBI special agents in New York executed search warrants on the office of President Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, is just another reason why, as an old colleague of mine said recently, “If I were the subject of a Bob Mueller-led investigation, I’d be peeing my pants.” What Monday’s action demonstrates is that the special counsel is not only conducting a serious investigation of Russia interference in our democracy, and of those U.S. persons who may have colluded or conspired or otherwise enabled it, but a thorough one. As one who’s seen Robert Mueller in action up close and personally for a lot of years, I have long expected nothing less. What is particularly interesting about Monday’s action, however, is not that it is serious or thorough, but that it was based on a referral from the special counsel to the U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York. Media speculation has suggested the primary basis for the referral was the $130,000 “hush money” payment Cohen made to porn star Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels, who has said repeatedly and quite convincingly that she had an affair with Trump. But it is quite possible that was not the only basis for the search warrant used to authorize the action. Scope is a big deal in a federal search warrant. Typically, investigators can’t just take anything they please. This is particularly true in a search of a lawyer’s office, where protection of “privileged information” is the most sacred of legal cows. According to The New York Times, “the payments to Ms. Clifford are only one of the many topics being investigated, according to (those briefed) on the search. The FBI also seized emails, tax documents and business records . . . . ” It was also noted in the Times piece that records seized included “communications between Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen.” What is perhaps most telling about this action is that the special counsel, and by extension, the Southern District p robers, had no compulsion about executing as earch warrant on the President’s personal counsel. Clearly, the use of a search warrant rather than a subpoena in this instance is another indicator that the special counsel’s prosecutors and investigators (and, now those of the Southern District and New York FBI office) don’t trust a word the clowns in the Trump administration are telling them. Truth is, it’s their own damned fault. If I were in their shoes, I should think I’d be peeing my pants, too. Montoya is a retired FBI senior executive who served under Robert Mueller and James Comey as special agent in charge of two field offices.