Like the Manafort raids, the Feebs have demonstrated that they are serious, and the Rick Gates plea may have something to do with this first step on the #TrumpRussia path. Because it’s, yes, still about following the money.
45* mulls over firing Mueller (via Rosenstein by starting a firing/resignation cascade of DoJ and FBI officials), and will still only make it worse because that’s the only options left, other than the obvious path of resignation.
So the feds might not have Cohen on an illegal campaign contribution with the $130k hush money payment. But there were funky wire transfers and many other odd solicitations regarding Ukrainians among others peddling influence. $130k was Trump change.
Of course, the logic of having a Michael Cohen defend you does begin to deteriorate right about the time FBI agents show up at his home and office with search warrants.
Update: The Washington Post reports Cohen is being investigated for bank fraud and campaign finance violations. It is not clear if those are the only alleged crimes that are being investigated.
Second update: The Post’s updated report adds wire fraud to the alleged crimes being investigated. The New York Times states, “The payments to the pornographic film actress, Stephanie Clifford, who is known as Stormy Daniels, are only one of many topics being investigated, according to a person briefed on the search.” Cohen is, indeed, facing a high level of legal risk.
The Post is reporting that the subject of the Cohen warrant was an investigation into possible bank fraud, wire fraud, and campaign finance violations, possibly related to a hush money contract with adult film performer Stormy Daniels.
Mueller probably could have made a claim that Cohen already fell under his jurisdiction, which is to investigate Russian election interference, links between the Trump campaign and Russia, and “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation.”
But it has been reported that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made the call to involve the U.S. attorney, and perhaps Rosenstein made a strategic calculation about Trump, or they agreed together.
Anyone who has followed Cohen’s career knows there are obvious connections to the Russia investigation. Even if these conservative attacks are not legally sound or morally consistent, they nevertheless might give Trump cover to fire Mueller, and they might give Republicans cover to tolerate his firing with just enough handwringing and finger-wagging but no real action.
So, Mueller may be engaging in a political strategy: Monday’s raid does not fit the right-wing narrative of a deep-state Inspector Javert out of control, but instead, it involves more traditional law enforcement officials and even more Trump appointees.
The Southern District is the most establishment prosecutors’ office in the country, which might still open up attacks on “the deep state” from the fringe right and the Trump dead-enders, but mainstream Republicans know better.
U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman is viewed as a reliable nonpartisan professional who served in Republican administrations. Sessions appointed Berman as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District after Trump interviewed him. It would be ridiculous to attack Berman as a Democratic mole.
According to WaPo, Michael Cohen no-knock FBI raid was, in part, based on “campaign finance violations.”
Special counsel Robert Mueller is probing a $150,000 payment to the Donald J. Trump Foundation, made by a Ukranian billionaire in September 2015 in exchange for a 20-minute video appearance by Trump.
Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen—whose office and residence were raided on Monday—“solicited the payment,” the New York Times reports.
Marcus Owens, the former head of the IRS Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division, called the payment “curious,” noting “it comes during a campaign and is from a foreigner and looks like an effort to buy influence.”
Attorney-client privilege doesn't apply if there's "a serious allegation of illegal activity."
"the search of Cohen's office was not the work of Mueller's prosecutors. It involves a matter that the Mueller team came across, which the team concluded did not fall under its mandate and passed on to the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan."
Q: Are you concerned about what the FBI might find, Mr. President? Do you have any concern?
TRUMP: No, I’m not.
Q: Why don’t you just fire Mueller?
TRUMP: Why don’t I just fire Mueller?
Q: Yeah, just fire the guy.
TRUMP: Well, I think it’s a disgrace what’s going on. We’ll see what happens. But I think it’s really a sad situation when you look at what happened. And many people have said, “You should fire him.” Again, they found nothing. And in finding nothing, that’s a big statement. If you know the person who’s in charge of the investigation, you know about that. Deputy Rosenstein — Rod Rosenstein — he wrote the letter, very critical, of Comey.
One of the things they said: “I fired Comey.” Well, I turned out to do the right thing, because if you look at all of the things that he’s done and the lies, and you look at what’s gone on at the FBI with the insurance policy and all of the things that happened — turned out I did the right thing.
But he signed — as you know, he also signed the FISA warrant. So Rod Rosenstein, who’s in charge of this, signed a FISA warrant, and he also signed a letter that was essentially saying to fire James Comey. And he was right about that. He was absolutely right.
So we’ll see what happens. I think it’s disgraceful, and so does a lot of other people. This is a pure and simple witch hunt.
www.washingtonpost.com/...
The insurance policy refers to a Strzok text message, since debunked, but it is fascinating how Trump tries to maintain a narrative that has decreasing credibility. But it is what he’ll use in that Mueller interview.