Federal prosecutors secured the search warrants to seize records in reference to adult film star payoff

Today, the FBI raided the Manhattan office and home of Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen to seize records related to payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels and other matters involving Donald Trump. Federal prosecutors secured a warrant on the Trump matter after receiving a referral from Special Counsel, Robert S. Mueller III.

The New York Times said that the raid on Michael Cohen’s office was confirmed by Cohen’s lawyer, Stephen Ryan, who called the search “completely inappropriate and unnecessary.” While the search is not thought to be connected to the Mueller investigation, it is thought that the warrant was secured using information that Mueller uncovered in his investigation into possible Russian meddling in the Trump presidential win.

Stephen Ryan, A Lawyer For Trump Attorney Michael Cohen Issued A Statement About The Raid

Stephen Ryan, the lawyer for Michael Cohen, released a statement to the public confirming that several search warrants had been carried out concerning the Donald Trump/Stormy Daniels matter and the payment of $130k.

In addition to negotiating a payment in the Stormy Daniels matter, Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, also played a part in the special counsel’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The payments to Stormy Daniels, aka Stephanie Clifford, are said to be only part of the documentation the FBI was seeking in the office of Michael Cohen. A source said that the FBI also seized emails, tax documents, and business records.

The ‘Extraordinary Search’ Of Cohen’s Correspondence With Donald Trump Happened Today

CNN stated that Angelo Kakolyris, a spokesman for the law firm of Squire Patton Boggs in New York, where Michael Cohen has his office, stated that they are severing their relationship with Cohen and that they are cooperating fully with the FBI in terms of their search. He also added that the firm has nothing to do with the relationship between Donald Trump, the Trump Organization, and Michael Cohen.

Mueller is said to have green-lit the request for search warrants after complaints to the Justice Department and Federal Election Commission over potential violations of campaign finance law in reference to payments to Stormy Daniels from Michael Cohen on behalf of then-candidate Donald Trump.

Michael Avenatti, the lawyer now representing Stormy Daniels in her matter concerning a non-disclosure agreement with Donald Trump, commented on the search of the law office of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen on Twitter today.

In addition to the FBI investigation, Avenatti is still pursuing a civil matter on behalf of his client, Stormy Daniels (Stephanie Clifford) and others versus Donald Trump. Avenatti says the case will not be over until Trump and Cohen come clean on the matter and vindicate Daniels. </s> U.S. President Donald Trump blasted the FBI’s raid on the office of his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, Tuesday morning saying that “attorney–client privilege is dead!”

On Monday, federal agents seized records on topics including a $130,000 payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels who claims she had sex with Trump more than a decade ago.

Angered by the raid, Trump called the move a “disgrace” and that federal agents “broke into” the office of his personal attorney. He also called special counsel Robert Mueller‘s investigation “an attack on our country.”

READ MORE: Donald Trump livid after FBI raids offices of his lawyer Michael Cohen

Both Trump and Cohen have denied Daniels’ claim.

WATCH: The FBI has raided the offices of President Trump’s longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen. The agents reportedly seized multiple documents.



“It’s a disgrace. It’s frankly a real disgrace. It’s an attack on our country in a true sense,” Trump told reporters Monday. “It’s an attack on what we all stand for. So when I saw this, when I heard it, I heard it like you did, I said ‘that is really now in a whole new level of unfairness.'”

Asked whether he would fire Mueller, Trump said “we’ll see what happens.”

Trump can’t fire Mueller directly. But he could order Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the special counsel’s probe, to end it.

–with a file from the Associated Press </s> NEW YORK – The FBI raid on President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen sought information that included payments allegedly made to keep women silent about affairs with Trump more than a decade ago.

A source familiar with the matter told CNN Tuesday that a focus of the raid was to seek records on the deal set up between ex-Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal and a company that reportedly paid her amid the 2016 presidential campaign cycle to keep her account from publication.

The warrant also sought records regarding the deal with porn star Stormy Daniels, another woman who alleges an affair with Trump and was paid to keep her story quiet. Cohen is in a legal dispute over a hush agreement Daniels signed before the 2016 campaign to keep quiet about the alleged affair.

McDougal filed a lawsuit last month against American Media Inc., the company that owns The National Enquirer, to be released from an agreement with the company.

Shortly before the presidential election, the Wall Street Journal published a story saying American Media Inc. paid $150,000 to McDougal, but did not run her story in a tabloid maneuver known as “catch and kill.” The contract, according to the Journal, did not require the Enquirer to run the story and required McDougal’s silence.

The New York Times was first to report the inclusion of McDougal in the warrant. Representatives for Trump have denied both McDougal and Daniels’ accounts.

A corporate spokesman for American Media Inc. provided a statement to CNN in response to the suit last month, saying McDougal “has been free to respond to press inquiries about her relationship with President Trump since 2016” and that the company had not “silenced” her.

The search warrant behind Monday’s raids of Cohen also included a request for documents related to Cohen’s ownership of taxi medallions, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.

Cohen has held numerous New York City medallions in his portfolio, according to records, though the value has been diminished since the onset of Uber and Lyft.

There were various sections to the request regarding information connected to payments to Daniels and communications with Trump and his campaign, one of the sources said. Another source said Monday that the search included bank records.

There were also what one source said were other issues that could be unrelated to Daniels, including smaller investments.

In addition, the warrant said it related in part to election laws.

Cohen admitted in February that he had facilitated a payment to Daniels, although he has denied the validity of the alleged affair. Trump said when asked last week that he did not know about the payment and referred other questions about the matter to Cohen.

“Michael is my attorney,” Trump said. “You’ll have to ask Michael.”

Revelations about the payment have prompted widespread scrutiny and some legal questions, including complaints to the Justice Department and Federal Election Commission, saying the payment to Daniels could constitute violations of campaign finance law.

Both McDougal and Daniels have gone public with their stories despite the agreements they are fighting that they say kept them silent. McDougal said she and Trump had an extended affair from 2006-2007, and Daniels said she also had sex with Trump in 2006 and alleged she was later threatened to stay quiet about it.

The FBI raided Cohen’s office on Monday, Cohen’s attorney Stephen Ryan confirmed, and a source familiar with the matter said Monday’s raids included the Loews Regency hotel where Cohen has been staying. The Wall Street Journal reportedthe raid included Cohen’s home.

Ryan said in a statement that the US Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York had executed “a series of search warrants,” and that federal prosecutors had told him it stemmed partially from a referral by the office of special counsel Robert Mueller.

Trump lashed out at news of the searches, calling it “ridiculous” and “an attack on our country.”

His anger continued through Tuesday morning, when he apparently referred to the special counsel investigation as a “total witch hunt.” </s> Federal agents armed with search warrants have seized documents from President Donald Trump‘s personal attorney Michael Cohen, a defence lawyer said Monday.

The raid on Cohen’s office was done by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan and was based, in part, on a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller, according to Cohen’s lawyer, Stephen Ryan.

READ MORE: Donald Trump’s lawyer files lawsuit against BuzzFeed for publishing Russia dossier

“The decision by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York to conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary,” Ryan said in a statement. “It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his clients.”

WATCH: Stormy Daniels’ lawyer says ‘cover up’ of alleged affair with Trump should matter to public

Ryan did not elaborate on the documents that were taken from Cohen’s office.

Cohen is Trump’s longtime personal lawyer. He has been under heavy public scrutiny in recent months for his payment of $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had an affair with Trump in the mid-2000s.

The New York Times first reported on the raid. </s> The FBI raided the office and hotel room of President Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, on Monday.

Agents seized records related to several topics, among them Cohen’s 2016 payment of $130,000 to Stormy Daniels, a pornographic film actress who says she had an affair with Trump, according to the New York Times. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan obtained the search warrant after receiving a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller. The Washington Post reported that Cohen is under federal investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud, and campaign finance violations.

The raid provoked an extraordinary tirade from Trump. “It’s a disgraceful situation,” a visibly angry Trump told reporters prior to meeting with his national security team Monday. “It’s a total witch hunt. I’ve been saying it for a long time.”

“It’s an attack on our country,” he said. “It’s an attack on what we all stand for.”

Cohen’s lawyer, Stephen Ryan, confirmed the raids in the statement Monday. “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,” Ryan said. “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.”

Ryan called the use of search warrants “completely inappropriate and unnecessary,” and charged that it “resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his clients.” Ryan said Cohen has already cooperated with investigators, including providing documents to Congress and sitting for depositions.

The referral to the US attorney in the Southern District of New York was approved by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Bloomberg reported.

Trump on Monday criticized Rosenstein and complained that Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recused himself from involvement in the probe into Trump’s ties to Russia. (Sessions, who worked with Trump’s campaign team, said he was recusing himself from any involvement in investigations related to 2016 presidential campaigns, following standard ethics guidelines. But in practice he has appeared to repeatedly violate that pledge.)

It is not clear if Trump has power to fire Mueller, but the president on Monday threatened to try. “We’ll see what happens,” he said.

The raid of Cohen’s office occurred at the New York office of Squire Patton Boggs, at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, Mother Jones confirmed. Cohen used that office as part of a strategic partnership he formed with the firm last year.

Angelo Kakolyris, a spokesman for Squire Patton Boggs, said in a statement Monday that the firm’s partnership with Cohen has ended. “The firm’s arrangement with Mr. Cohen reached its conclusion, mutually and in accordance with the terms of the agreement,” Kakolyris said. “We have been in contact with Federal authorities regarding their execution of a warrant relating to Mr. Cohen. These activities do not relate to the firm and we are in full cooperation.” A source at the firm said Cohen’s exit “was in the works prior to today.”

Vanity Fair reported that FBI agents also raided a room at the Loews Regency Hotel in the Upper East Side, where Cohen has been staying. It was not clear why Cohen, who lives in New York, was occupying a hotel room there. </s> President Trump’s former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen appeared at FBI headquarters in New York on Tuesday afternoon ahead of a 4 p.m. court proceeding where he will plead guilty to federal charges, according to multiple reports.

Cohen will reportedly plead guilty to charges concerning violations of campaign-finance law, bank fraud, and tax fraud stemming from a four-month investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan.

The probe has focused on his business dealings, but also touched on pre-election-year payoffs to two women who claimed they had affairs with Trump years ago.

Prosecutors announced there would be a proceeding of interest for a defendant identified only as John Doe, followed by a news conference outside the courthouse. About 90 minutes before that scheduled event, Cohen was seen walking into the FBI building.

The downfall of Trump’s longtime lawyer was set in motion April 9 by an FBI raid on his home, office and hotel room. The raid was reportedly authorized by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, a target of Trump’s frequent ire over the Russia investigation.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said in court filings at the time that it was investigating “Cohen’s personal business dealings and finances.” Prosecutors eyed Cohen for months, reportedly over possible bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign-finance violations.

Search warrants reportedly sought information on $20 million in loans Cohen took out from two banks that deal with the taxi industry, which Cohen was a part of through his ownership of medallions that authorize cabs in New York.

The warrants also sought information on Cohen’s role in muzzling at least two women who allegedly had extramarital affairs with Trump: Stormy Daniels, who claimed she bedded the now-president at a Lake Tahoe golf tournament in 2006, and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal, who said she dated Trump throughout 2006 and 2007.

Daniels signed a nondisclosure agreement with Trump and Cohen days before the election in exchange for $130,000, while McDougal’s story was bought, then buried, by the Trump-friendly publisher of the National Enquirer. Both women filed lawsuits asking to be released from these contracts. McDougal has settled and stepped out of the spotlight, but Daniels’ case is on hold pending the outcome of the Cohen probe.

Hours after the FBI came knocking, President Trump called the raid a “disgraceful situation” and “an attack on our country.” Cohen was famously Trump’s most-dependable bulldog, saying he would “do anything” to protect him, even to “take a bullet.”

Weeks after the raid though, their relationship — said to have been frosty since Trump became president and reportedly spurned Cohen for a West Wing job — turned to ice.

In June, CNN reported Cohen claimed that Trump has prior knowledge of the infamous Trump Tower meeting with Russians offering “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. In response, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani said Cohen had “lied all his life.”

Days later, in Cohen’s first and only interview since the raid, Trump’s former fixer said his family “have my first loyalty and always will.”

Days after the FBI search, Cohen, 52, lawyered up and sought a temporary restraining order in Manhattan federal court, asking that his legal team inspect the materials for attorney-client privilege before handing them to prosecutors.

On April 26, U.S. District judge Kimba Wood appointed a former colleague, Barbara Jones, as the “special master,” or independent party, tasked with reviewing the seized paper and electronic items for privilege.

Federal agents confiscated over 3.7 million files, and a review of the documents came to an end on Monday. Judge Wood on Tuesday accepted Jones’ finding that “7,146 of those items are privileged, eight are partially privileged, and 285 are highly personal.” None of those items may be supplied to the government as part of its investigation, Wood ruled.

After the raid, Cohen then hired two new lawyers, one to deal with feds and one to deal with Trump: Guy Petrillo, former chief of SDNY’s criminal division and an experienced trial lawyer; Lanny Davis, a lawyer “best known as a high-profile spinner for Bill and Hillary Clinton,” as The New York Times put it.

Davis took on Trump’s own lawyer, Giuliani, in a fight that played out on TV in July.

That month, Davis released one of several tapes Cohen is said to have made of Trump when they two worked together at the Trump organization. On the tape, Trump and Cohen apparently discuss how to pay off McDougal.

"I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David," Cohen said, likely referencing AMI owner David Pecker. When Cohen tells Trump about financing, Trump said “pay with cash.”

Giuliani said Trump never paid any money towards the McDougal catch and kill.

Prosecutors have 12 audio tapes made by Cohen, CNN reported last month. </s> Federal investigators are examining whether President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, committed bank and tax fraud worth more than $20 million, according to a media report.

The New York Times, citing anonymous sources, said authorities were focusing on loans obtained for taxi businesses owned by Cohen and his family. The bank loans under examination were provided by Sterling National Bank and Melrose Credit Union, the Times reported. Investigators are looking into whether Cohen obtained the loans by misrepresenting his assets.

Investigators were also considering whether Cohen had violated campaign finance and other laws when he made financial arrangements to pay women to stay silent about alleged affairs with then-candidate Trump in 2016.

Prosecutors may file charges by the end of August, two sources told the Times.

Cohen, who long served as Trump's fixer, has been under investigation for months. In April, federal investigators for the Southern District of New York seized roughly 4 million files from Cohen's home, business office and hotel room.

Last week, a court-appointed special master who reviewed the material said investigators would have access to most of those records.

More: Feds win access to records seized from ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen

More: Michael Cohen tapes: Here's what we know about the secret recordings

The investigation has ruptured the once close relationship between Cohen and Trump. In July, Cohen reportedly said the president had been aware of a 2016 meeting at Trump Tower to obtain damaging about Hillary Clinton.

Cohen also released a tape in which he and Trump discuss buying the rights of former Playboy model Karen McDougal's story about having an affair with Trump. </s> Keep calm and raise hell. The forces of truth and justice may be closing in on President Donald Trump, but there is no reason to believe they can triumph without massive displays of outrage in the streets and at the polls.

Potentially the most serious threat Trump has ever faced came last week when FBI agents raided the office, home and hotel room of his longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. By all accounts, Cohen’s role for the president and the Trump Organization has been that of a “fixer” who brings in deals and makes problems go away.

As everyone knows by now, Cohen “facilitated” payment of $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence about the sexual tryst she says she had with Trump. And according to a lawsuit filed by former Playboy model Karen McDougal, Cohen was involved behind the scenes in cementing a $150,000 agreement that squelched her story of a 10-month affair she says she had with Trump.

But the president’s sex life may be the least of his worries on the Cohen front. For more than a decade, Cohen was in a better position than anyone — arguably, even Trump’s children Ivanka, Donald Jr. and Eric, who also worked in the family firm — to know the intimate details of Trump’s business dealings.

Was the Trump Organization buoyed by an influx of Russian money, as Donald Jr. once claimed? Were there Russian contacts that have not yet been disclosed? Did Trump or his campaign collude with Russians to meddle in the election? In its real estate sales, did Trump’s firm take the required precautions against money laundering by shady characters? Did Trump’s swashbuckling business style, of which he so often boasts, ever cross the line into illegality?

Cohen can likely provide answers. If necessary, FBI agents may refresh his memory with the audio recordings they allegedly seized of Cohen’s phone conversations.

“Attorney-client privilege is dead!” Trump tweeted after learning of the raid. “A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!”

On the rare occasions when federal authorities raid an attorney’s office, they must go through elaborate and rigorous procedures. A judge has to approve the search warrant, which requires a showing that evidence of specific crimes will likely be found. Documents seized are examined by a special “taint team” of prosecutors who have had no previous involvement in the case and whose only role is to redact materials covered by attorney-client privilege before passing the rest to the principal investigators. The Cohen raid was authorized not by special counsel Robert Mueller but by the office of the U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York. None of this is good news for Cohen — or for Trump.

The other development that reportedly has the president in a rage is the scathing verdict on his character delivered by former FBI director Jim Comey in a newly published book and an interview with ABC News.

All right, Comey does come off as something of a sanctimonious tool. But his book’s account of Trump’s repeated demands for a pledge of personal loyalty and wholly inappropriate attempts to interfere in the Russia investigation ring true. In the ABC interview, Comey charged that Trump was “morally unfit to be president.”

Comey compared Trump to a mafia boss — “It’s the family, the family, the family, the family” — and said there is “some evidence” that the president committed obstruction of justice. Asked by George Stephanopoulos whether he believes the Russians “have something” on Trump, Comey replied, “I think it’s possible.”

For those of us who agree with Comey’s judgments about the president and welcome the vise-like pressure on Cohen, all of this is emotionally satisfying. But so what?

The White House asserted last week that Trump has the power to fire Mueller, and clearly he would love to do so. Trump could also seek to neuter Mueller’s probe by firing his supervisor, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and installing someone more pliant.

If Trump took either of these actions, would Congress stand up to him? Not this Congress. Not unless millions protested across the nation to demand action. Massive demonstrations might work — but also might not.

The only sure way of guaranteeing that this aberrant administration is investigated, held accountable and properly restrained is to put Democrats in control of one or both houses of Congress. A new Washington Post poll shows that the Democratic edge over Republicans ahead of the midterm election has narrowed. Instead, it needs to grow.

Only you and I can stop Trump. It’s all about November.

Eugene Robinson is a columnist for The Washington Post. </s> Michael Cohen, the longtime personal lawyer to President Donald Trump, negotiated a $1.6 million payment to a former Playboy model who said a Republican National Committee official got her pregnant, according to a new report.

Cohen handled the settlement to the woman for Elliot Broidy, a venture-capitalist who serves as a deputy finance chairman for the RNC, the Wall Street reported Friday. The payment bars the woman, who is based in Los Angeles, from speaking about her relationship with Broidy. The money will be paid to her in quarterly installments and the first installment was due on Dec. 1, the reported.

“I acknowledge I had a consensual relationship with a Playboy Playmate,” Broidy said in a statement. “At the end of our relationship, this woman shared with me that she was pregnant. She alone decided that she did not want to continue with the pregnancy and I offered to help her financially during this difficult period. We have not spoken since that time.”

Broidy said he hired Cohen to handle the matter after being contacted by the woman’s attorney, Keith Davidson. The report puts further scrutiny on Cohen, who had his home, office and a hotel room raided by FBI agents this week. The raids were reported to be connected to payments made by Cohen to Stormy Daniels, a porn star who claims to have had a consensual affair with Trump in 2006.

Cohen also serves as national deputy chairman of the Republican National Committee, while the finance chairman is former casino magnate Steve Wynn, who has been accused of sexual misconduct.
The FBI raid the office, hotel room and home of U.S. President Donald Trump's lawyer and spokesperson Michael Cohen, seizing records related to several topics including payments to pornographic-film actress Stormy Daniels.