The New York Times has broken
the story that the FBI raided the office of longtime Trump personal
attorney Michael Cohen today.
The Wall Street Journal amplifies
the story to add that the raid extended beyond his office to include his
home and Manhattan hotel room.
Conducted pursuant to a series of
search warrants, the raids resulted in the seizure of “communications between
the lawyer and his clients that cover topics including payments to the former
porn actress known as Stormy Daniels, according to a person familiar with the
matter.”
The Journal further reports:
The searches were executed at the
direction of the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, which has opened an
investigation that is being coordinated with the office of special counsel
Robert Mueller, this person said.
Steve Ryan, a lawyer for Mr. Cohen,
in a statement Monday confirmed the search.
“Today the US 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,” Mr. 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.”
Mr. Ryan called the use of search
warrants “completely inappropriate and unnecessary” and said it had “resulted
in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between
a lawyer and his clients.”
He added: “These government tactics are also wrong
because Mr. Cohen has cooperated completely with all government entities,
including providing thousands of non-privileged documents to the Congress and
sitting for depositions under oath.”
We don’t know what yet what it all
means, although it becomes clearer every day that President Trump is in a
political death struggle with the authorities operating under his nominal
control.
UPDATE: President Trump is not
amused. We are approaching a critical point in this festering drama.
___________________
___________________
BY JOHN
HINDERAKER |
Scott wrote earlier about the FBI’s raid on the home
and office of President Trump’s long-time lawyer, Michael Cohen. I want to add
my own thoughts in a separate post.
News reports indicate that the FBI
raid resulted, at least in part, from a referral by Robert Mueller.
The subject of the raid included
“payments to the former porn actress known as Stormy Daniels.”
Good going, Bob–you were assigned to
investigate non-existent collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and
the Russians, and now you’re down to liaisons with porn performers.
Donald Trump allegedly spent one
illicit evening with Ms. Daniels 12 years ago, when he was a private citizen.
(Lacking personal knowledge, I assume the allegation is probably true.) That
might be a big deal to Melania Trump, but to the rest of us it is utterly
irrelevant.
What makes the encounter “news” is the fact, acknowledged by
Mr. Cohen, that he paid Daniels $130,000 for a non-disclosure agreement in
October 2016. Such a payment is entirely legal and (relatively speaking)
proper.
I regard the claim that this payment was a “campaign contribution”
as frivolous.
So here’s the situation: the
Special Democratic Party Prosecutor and the Department of Justice, in the
person of the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of
New York, have nothing better to do than investigate a 12-year-old, one-night
consensual encounter involving Donald Trump.
Apparently, actual crime in
New York is a thing of the past. Organized crime is extinct; political
corruption is non-existent; illegal immigration has ceased; violent crime is
unknown.
Stormy Daniels is the most pressing item on the law enforcement
agenda.
It is blindingly obvious that this
whole story, and the leak thereof, is a political attack on President Trump by
the Democratic Party.
There is only one serious question: Didn’t President
Trump appoint the current Director of the FBI, Christopher Wray? And the
Attorney General, Jeff Sessions? Yes, he did. So why is DOJ making war on the
president?
The answer is that Trump and his
appointees do not control the departments they ostensibly run.
Liberals tell us
that at DOJ, it is critically important that political appointees not interfere
with the “career professionals” who do all the work. I say, bullshit.
The
“career professionals” are just Democratic Party lifers who have risen to the
top of the bureaucracy, often by avoiding any actual, risky work.
I’m not
talking about FBI agents on the street, or the majority of Assistant U.S.
Attorneys. (U.S. Attorneys, of course, are political appointees.)
I’m talking
about career bureaucrats like James Comey, Bob Mueller, Andy McCabe, and so on.
President Trump’s appointees
absolutely should “interfere” with these Democratic Party operatives.
They
should order them to direct their efforts toward legitimate law enforcement
ends, not toward Democratic Party activism. Those who refuse should be fired.
We are witnessing, as Scott says, “a
political death struggle with the authorities operating under [President
Trump’s] nominal control.”
President Trump and his loyal appointees need to
assert the powers that the voters have given them.
