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FBI Raids Trump Lawyer’s Office
The FBI has raided the office of President Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. From the New York Times:
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan obtained the search warrant after receiving a referral from the special counsel, 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 likely resulted from information he had uncovered and gave to prosecutors in New York.
“Today the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York executed a series of search warrants and seized the privileged communications between my client, Michael Cohen, and his clients,” said Stephen Ryan, his lawyer. “I have been advised by federal prosecutors that the New York action is, in part, a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller.”
Mr. Cohen plays a role in aspects of the special counsel’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. He also recently said he paid $130,000 to a pornographic-film actress, Stephanie Clifford, who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump. Ms. Clifford is known as Stormy Daniels.
This investigation has gone from “Trump colluded with Putin to steal American democracy” to “Trump diddled a porn star” in about a year. Hopefully Mueller will wrap up this investigation soon.
What do you think, Ricochetti? Is this big or blah?
Published in General
Its an excuse to leak confidential information to the public.
So the FBI has proudly returned to its roots, scooping up sexual dirt on politicians in the grand old tradition of the man whose name is on their headquarters.
Special Counsels mean “whatever we happen to stumble across, we’ll get someone in the end.”
Any investigation that gets near Donald Trump was bound to find crimes, likely owing to the fact that Donald Trump is a dirtbag.
And if the President thinks that Mueller is going beyond what he should be investigating, then he should fire him.
So…I guess the friendly sit-down between Trump and Mueller is off now?
I think it is big, because the nature of the NDA seems rather suspicious. Either it represents a campaign finance violation, or unethical and maybe fraudulent practices by Mr. Cohen who lied to Stormy about representing Trump in the NDA.
Also this raid was not carried out by Muller but the DA for New York. So it is a totally separate team looking into this. So even if Muller gives all clear on Russia this investigation by the New York DA could come up with all sorts of other things if they are there.
I love it! Great work by genius lawyer Michael Cohen, who apparently paid for this mess out of his own pocket? How much does Trump pay him to complicate his life?
Two and half more years of this guys. I better get at least two more tax cuts and five more Gorsuches.
Sounds like people who are (quite rightly) concerned that the Special Counsel is exceeding his (too vague) mandate should be pleased.
Mueller handed this off to a regular U.S. Attorney, under the supervision of the regular DOJ.
Good on ‘ya, Robert.
I do not understand why Trump doesn’t order the FBI to produce the FISC court application for the warrant on Carter Page. ” Mr Wray, I want that application on my desk in 24 hours or you will be welcome to take a long vacation forever.” The same with the DOJ. These are agencies over which he has complete executive authority. If the application does use the Clinton paid phony dossier as its main ingredient, he could make that info public and begin the unravelling of Mueller’s little band. It almost seems like he doesn’t want to know. But to your point Jon, doesn’t this make it plain as day that the point of Mueller is to get Trump any way he can?
For good order’s sake, and even allowing for peculiar obsessions, ‘dirtbag’ is now en vogue here on Ricochet and what we have to endure? Call the man what you will, own up to yourself first. At this time, call him President Trump.
Ink by the barrel, sure, and why pursue this and worry about your tone, but seriously. Get a grip.
I’m guessing Mr. Cohen will wind up indicted on a violation of campaign finance laws.
This will make some Republicans dislike campaign finance laws even more than they already do and will make other Republicans and all Democrats fall even more in love with campaign finance laws than they already are.
At least he is not a lawyer, dirtbag is not so bad.
My guess is that the FISC court application is a complicated matter. If he makes it public, then we will find out exactly which Steele dossier allegations were corroborated. It may run something like:
Prostitutes in Russia: True
Peeing on the bed: Not True
etc.
Is that a fun conversation to have?
Well reasoned and insightful.
Name-calling always means one has no substantive argument.
Dirt Bag President Trump? Is that really better? If you think the man is a dirt bag call him a dirt bag. I don’t recall people around here being all that charitable to Obama, and if we had been around in the Clinton days I’m sure Dirt Bag would have been rather deferential.
Snicker.
And so dies Amendments V & VI, and with them Gideon v. Wainwright.
“Whatever it takes,” right?
What if (and I admit this is only my childish and fevered dream/hope) the only thing that is true in the dossier (that wasn’t public knowledge at that point already) is the peeing on the bed. No collusion or plans with Russian agents, but Trump totally hired hookers to pee on a bed Obama slept in. That would be beautiful and witnessing the reaction to that would be magnificent. Would Hannity express his support for this strange and not uncommon fetish? Would Jerry Falwell Jr. remind us that King David also had the Queen of Sheba pee on a bed as well? I want to see how far Trump’s most ardent media supporters can go in defending the vulgarity of the man in the absence of a crime. Because frankly hiring sexy Russian women to pee on a bed you are renting is not a crime. And he did give us tax cuts and Gorsuch.
I know this is a pipe dream, because if it were true and confirmed in the FISA warrant it surely would have leaked by now from the Dems that have looked at it. But, the spectacle of seeing this confirmed and the media coverage of it would make a burlesque circus look like high mass performed by the pope. The sheer stupidity and indignity of it all would almost be transcendent. Maybe only then could we be certain we have hit cultural rock bottom.
Nice try. There is no equal between this coarse, rambunctious, sly guy currently on the red team (you know, the moreover good guys in a two party system) versus the evil, socialist, underhand, deliberately unconstitutional, brisk and condescendingly milquetoast nihilist nitwit narcissist whose legacy hopefully continues to turn to dust whilst we discover the ruins of his ill conceived imperial and potentially criminal socialist and overbearing designs.
Probably a tad clearer and depictive than pure limp Coleslaw name calling. If the COC were not to ostracise me like a worn Dime in such instance I should love to go all Malcom Tucker on that incarnation of an equally ill conceived misunderstanding of previous electorates.
The phrase “indict a ham sandwich” comes to mind.
Jon,
I have no idea what this, in particular, is about other than a fishing expedition by a political hack hatchetman. I think Mueller is so far off base that he’s in the left field bleachers ordering popcorn. This ridiculous phony dog & pony show has been going on for close to two years now. Meanwhile, Trump and his now leaner and abler band of advisors face immediate threats from N. Korea, China, Russia, and Iran. They have picked the economy up out of the gutter and have it running halfway and would like to really kick it into gear. The idea that they should be constantly smeared by this perverse clown of a prosecutor is beyond belief.
If I sound frustrated and reaching my limit, it probably is because I am.
Regards,
Jim
Paying Stormy Daniels was not illegal and I would be amazed if that were the basis for the raid. If it were paid from campaign funds, that fact should be available from campaign records. It is vastly easier for a rich client and/or a rich lawyer to pay six-figure chump change out of pocket than to engineer some campaign fund swap.
No one who voted for Obama has standing to claim to care about campaign finance irregularities.
Mueller most likely looked at some past transactions in which Cohen was a party and used that as a pretext for arranging a dive into attorney-client records.
Real estate magnates send paper to multiple state and federal regulatory and tax agencies. If all private communications were opened up in every lawyer’s office for regulators to scrutinize them, it is very likely that “irregularities” can always be found. I won’t engage the ‘Trump as dirtbag’ thread. It is noteworthy that over a career of decades, Trump has never incurred serious criminal liability despite a very complex investment history.
It is abundantly clear that Mueller is an unprincipled Ahab on a mission of personal destruction. He has known dirtbags on staff.
The bottom line is the Obama administration/deep state/whatever you want to call them realize that if they do not destroy Trump and keep the focus on him, that the overtly criminal conspiracy that concocted the “collusion” charge is likely to bring them down. This is a fight to the death.
Compromise? President dirtbag Trump….
Paying Stormy Daniels more than the current limit on campaign contributions in an attempt to influence votes is, under current law, illegal.
The amount allegedly paid is well in excess of the current limit on campaign contributions, so the operative question is, was the payment an attempt to influence votes, which strikes me as a legitimate question. It is unlikely to touch Trump the way it did John Edwards, but the FEC will certainly have some questions for Mr. Cohen.
Trump seemed to be laying the predicate for firing DAG Rosenstein (among a lot of other things) in his comments to the press this evening. He pointed out a couple of conflicts:
1. Rod wrote the letter justifying the Comey firing. The firing was the justification for the appointment of Robert Mueller.
2. Rod had earlier signed the FISA warrant (maybe also a renewal) for the surveillance of Carter Page (a non-entity) based on the dubious Steele “dossier.”
It seems Rod was a lot more conflicted than Attorney General Jeff Sessions (who recused himself).
My recommendation would be that Jeff should fire Rod (for conflicts that vastly exceed those for which Jeff recused himself). I don’t know who would be the acting DAG, though. That’s kind of a critical question.
Always a favorite in Deep State circles…
Or, “blackmail into pleading to lesser charge,” more like…
Assuming the new DAG (or acting DAG) were a straight-shooter, the new DAG could apply the appropriate oversight, which Rod is obviously too conflicted to provide. And Mueller could continue — perhaps — as long as his appointing order (signed by the conflicted Rod R) was still considered valid.
Want to elaborate on this logic?