The New York Times now reports that the raid on Trump lawyer Michael Cohen was in relation to Trump's alleged affairs with not one, but two women who have now come forward to claim Trump and his allies sought to buy their silence.
The F.B.I. agents who raided the office of President Trump’s personal lawyer on Monday were looking for records about payments to two women who claim they had affairs with Mr. Trump, and information related to the publisher of The National Enquirer’s role in silencing one of the women, several people briefed on the investigation said.
The search warrant carried out by the public corruption unit of the Manhattan federal attorney’s office seeks information about Karen McDougal, an ex-Playboy model who claims she carried on a nearly yearlong affair with Mr. Trump shortly after the birth of his son in 2006. Ms. McDougal was paid $150,000 by American Media Inc., the Enquirer’s parent company, whose chief executive is a friend of Mr. Trump’s.
Stormy Daniels is currently embroiled in a legal battle over a "hush agreement" in which she received $130,000 from Cohen to remain silent about her affair with Trump—an arrangement that Trump last week claimed to have been unaware of. McDougal was paid the $150,000 by the Enquirer's company for exclusive rights to her story—which barred her from speaking to other reporters during the election period and, she asserts, even today.
For a raid to have been approved—and reports indicate the deputy attorney general personally approved the warrant to search Cohen's office and residences—it would have required convincing a judge that the lawyer was engaged in a criminal activity that superseded attorney-client privileges. That is a high bar, and it indicates that there's something about the payments to both women that investigators, the deputy attorney general and a federal judge found to be likely criminal.