Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Raid On Cohen

Now we’re getting somewhere.

The F.B.I. raided the Rockefeller Center office and Park Avenue hotel room of President Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, on Monday morning, seizing business records, emails and documents related to several topics, including a payment to a pornographic film actress.

Mr. Trump, in an extraordinarily angry response, lashed out hours later at what a person briefed on the matter said was an investigation into possible bank fraud by Mr. Cohen. Mr. Trump accused his own Justice Department of perpetrating a “witch hunt” and asserted that the F.B.I. “broke in to” Mr. Cohen’s office.

The president, who spoke at the White House before meeting with senior military commanders about a potential missile strike on Syria, called the F.B.I. raid a “disgraceful situation” and an “attack on our country in a true sense.”

It is not clear how the F.B.I. entered Mr. Cohen’s office, but agents had a search warrant and typically would have presented it to office personnel to be let in. The documents identified in the warrant date back years, according to a person briefed on the search.

The prosecutors obtained the search warrant after receiving a referral from the special counsel in the Russia investigation, Robert S. Mueller III, according to Mr. Cohen’s lawyer, who called the search “completely inappropriate and unnecessary.” The search does not appear to be directly related to Mr. Mueller’s investigation, but most likely resulted from information that he had uncovered and gave to prosecutors in New York.

The louder he screams, the closer they’re getting.

Charlie Pierce:

The FBI doesn’t raid the offices of high-end lawyers unless they are absolutely sure about what they’re looking for, and absolutely sure they’re inbounds, too. Attorney-client privilege is a serious business, and that’s a good thing. It’s pretty plain that this is a serious turn in Robert Mueller’s investigation. It’s also pretty plain that his investigation is going everywhere it can possibly go.

And knowing how Trump lashes out at anything nearby when he gets riled, folks in Syria better brace for an air raid.

One bark on “Raid On Cohen

  1. Charlie, this wasn’t Mueller’s raid (sounds like a Western), Bob Mueller is meticulously sticking to the parameters he’s been given, unlike Ken Starr who was a rogue investigator wandering everywhere and anywhere and spending the taxpayer dollars in order to “get” Clinton. Here Mueller found something he deemed criminal and turned the investigation over to the Southern District of New York. Funny Trump should rail against a witch hunt perpetrated by Democrats. All the people involved here are lifelong Republicans including the Prosecutor in New York who voted for Trump, contributed to Trump, was appointed by Trump and had been in a law office with Rudy Giulianni. Some people care more about their country than their own political biases.

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