Michael Cohen Under Criminal Investigation; FBI Raids The Office of Trump's Personal Lawyer

Today, the FBI executed a search warrant on the office of Michael Cohen, Trump's personal lawyer. The warrant is reportedly based on a referral from Robert Mueller

FBI agents on Monday raided the Manhattan office of President Trump’s private lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, seizing records about Cohen’s clients, including those related to a 2016 payment he made to adult-film star Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had a sexual encounter with Trump.

Among the documents seized were privileged communications between Cohen and his clients — including those with Trump, according to a person familiar with the investigators’ work. Investigators took Cohen’s computer, phone and personal financial records as part of the search of his office at Rockefeller Center, the person said.

The raid was first reported by the New York Times.

The raid is related to an investigation referred by the special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to federal prosecutors in New York, according to Stephen Ryan, an attorney for Cohen.

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

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

Dawn Dearden, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, declined to comment. Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel’s office, declined to comment. A White House spokesman declined to comment.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fbi-seizes-records-related-to-stormy-daniels-in-raid-of-trump-attorney-michael-cohens-office/2018/04/09/e3e43cf4-3c30-11e8-974f-aacd97698cef_story.html?utm_term=.1f678c36b775

I wonder what the referral was about

Edit:

In response to Cohen's motion to restrain the evidence collected in Monday's raids of his home and office, the US attorney in New York asserted the raids were authorized by a federal judge to seek evidence of conduct "for which Cohen is under criminal investigation."

The filing redacts what Cohen is under investigation for.

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

Interested to see if that's true.

Too bad the whole Republican party can't go down with Trump.

@narlymech:

Maybe not but they've definitely been going down *on* him! ?

So much winning.

Ah.

One tantalizing wrinkle here is that under normal circumstances, attorney-client privilege protects communications between, uh, an attorney and the client. But the Times notes that the records seized by the FBI include correspondence between Trump and Cohen. This is probably not an accident. The Fourth Amendment requires that authorities have probable cause to believe that a search would turn up evidence of criminal activity. But warrants must specifically describe the things to be seized, which means that in order to get at Trump-Cohen emails, or letters, or text messages, or ledgers, or anything else, the FBI would have had to convince a judge to let them take documents to which they usually have no right.

I say "usually" here because there are exceptions to every rule, and a very important one is that the privilege does not apply when the communication is used to further a crime or perpetrate a fraud. In other words, you cannot shield conversations between co-conspirators just because one of the people committing crimes with you went to law school.

They updated the article

Michael Cohen, the longtime attorney of President Trump, is under federal investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign finance violations, according to a person with knowledge of the case.

and perhaps unsurprisingly Trump has started his attacks on the FBI, and the special counsel.

"I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys. Good man. And it's a disgraceful situation. It's a total witch hunt," Trump said Monday, referring to a lawful FBI raid."It's an attack on our country," Trump said. "It's an attack on what we all stand for."

The President also criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the special counsel investigation, saying, "the attorney general made a terrible mistake."

Trump lamented what he called a "witch hunt" that has dogged his term in office, slammed Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia probe and argued that investigators on Mueller's team are "just about" all Democrats -- which is false.

"This is ridiculous. This is now getting ridiculous," Trump said, pointing to a "whole new level of unfairness."Asked why he hasn't moved to fire Mueller, Trump again said the situation is a "disgrace."

"Why don't I just fire Mueller? Well, I think it's a disgrace what's going on. We'll see what happens," Trump said. "Many people have said you should fire him. Again, they found nothing. And in finding nothing, that's a big statement."

I wonder when the full on tweet storm will come

But he borrowed against his home to make that payment to Stormy Daniels of his own volition, with no prompting from Trump or anyone else involved in the campaign, because.... reasons.

I'm blown away he hasn't been impeached yet.

Deep state.

The sheer fact that we have to guess the reason why this raid occurred out of a bunch of reasons it could have is a sign of how messed up the political world is right now. It may turn out to not involve trump at all but the fact that there are multiple reasons why it could is something that shouldn't be understated.

You are absolutely right this shows just how messed up the political world is and also that we have two very clear sides.

And the FBI and other agencies are being used for political gain more than anything right now is just a sick twist.

love that trump is pissed and freaking out

I call shenanigans.

I actually like Trump. Isn't that weird?

Nah, not really.

Even though Trump has let me down a bit and are loony toons, I love that he has stirred the political pot and also put focus on how shit the Democrats and the liberal movement is.

You are at least correct in that we have two very clear sides. One side is against this joke of an administration that turns out scandal after scandal and this group includes democrats and republicans alike. The other side are trump supporters, their numbers dropping by the day.

A federal judge had to be convinced to give a warrant to raid a lawyers office, not just any lawyer, but the lawyer of the sitting president. Further more, the judge felt there was enough evidence to give a no knock warrant which means they had reason to believe that they needed the evidence ASAP or else it could be destroyed. You can try to spin this as a political move but the facts just dont back you up on it, as far as we know currently, this could end up not involving trump at all.

Don´t think you quite get the idea behind a warrant but nice troll comment you come with as always.

Yes the side of criminals and the other sides that finds criminals in our government to be problematic.

Worth copying:

"To be clear: The FBI raid of Michael Cohen was OKd with a warrant by the Southern District US Attorney, Geoffrey S. Berman. Berman was appointed by Trump after he fired Preet Bharara. Berman was a one time Rudy Giuliani law partner—so hardly a lib Dem."

When Obama argued that there was an issue with policing in this country, the Trumpettes saw it as an attack on law enforcement.

When Trump directly attacked the FBI, where is the Trumpette crowd defending their puppet? No where to be found. Blue Lives Matter when it's convenient to Trumpettes.

While also putting an even bigger focus on how shit the Republican and conservative movement is.

It was also signed off by Trumps own Justice Department.

That's why trump is pissed at Sessions.

Sessions will be the next one gone.

Again, most of you missed the damage that has been done to the country again by the FBI.

Yeah they effed the election up but what are you going to do now about that?

Trump cheated.

The only cheats were the DNC, which has been proven.

Trump cheated, used Russia and probably China to further his agenda. Sorry I'm talking about your Fuhrer but something has to be done.

I'm with her!

The FBI certainly tried. The Obama Administration tried and like the FBI continued after the election. That is what this whole investigation is about getting Trump not the election. The Russians are laughing their asses off at us. This is all starting to sound like Stalin's Chief of his secret police " Show me a man and I will show you a crime." This is what our country has fallen to Russia and Nazi Germany. Remember Obama was pushing for a national police. Do you see any comparisons here.

Where is the proof? There is proof that Hillary used a foreign government to interfere with the election.

Nothing she did was illegal. Pretty sure conspiring with foreign governments are. If you didn't vote for a woman, and support a true woman, you are sexist.

You know the FBI helped trump..........right?

hahahahahaha

You know they helped Hilary........right?

Hahahahaha, A state legislator in California has introduced a bill that all online postings must be fat checked by the state before it can be posted. So it starts Freedom of speech is going away. Back to my comment you thought was funny.

Nothing Trump did was illegal either, only he won the election because she was such a piss poor candidate.

I guess you're more interested in the FREEDOM TO HATE than anything.

Nice little alt.

But I guess you missed that Mueller no longer has an interest in Trump when it comes to a Russia link.

You're right. Criminals never get away with crimes, especially politicians!

this is going to be huge.

I don't see how attorney client information can be protected if they have reasonable cause to think they engaged in violations of federal law together.

What I'm more curious about is the scope of the warrant and if something else turns up in gathering information whether it would be suppressed in court if used for going beyond the scope of the warrant.

Don´t you ever get tired of saying that and being proven wrong?

lol....doesn't get any weaker then that as a response.

you shall see how big this will be within a few months at most

Hasn't Trump stated on several occasions that anyone under investigation from FBI is not fit to be a president?

Let's also remember that the FBI is arguably the most conservative* of organizations.

*traditional conservative, not alt-right conservative.

It's a fakeboy, meaning his main is likely a republican poster like n64dd or something.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fakeboy

and not done very well I might add

wut?

Im no lawyer but don't clients and lawers have special circumstantial protections from raids? I believe that is the case. That being said, Muller must have some solid evidence to grant that warrant to raid a lawyer's office.

Heres to hoping this is the beginning of the end to the most dishonest, hateful, and biggoted POS in recent presidential history. I wonder what old Evangelists think of their god chosen leader now that hes guilty of trying to cover up cheating on his wife with a person who more or less gets paid to sleep with people. ??