Remember during Michael Cohen’s Feb. 27th testimony when he said, “Unfortunately, this topic is something that’s being investigated right now by the Southern District of New York, and I’ve been asked by them not to discuss and not to talk about these issues.”
Well, this may be one of the SDNY’s “other Trump wrongdoing” which Cohen couldn’t divulge:
After the FBI raids on Cohen’s home, office and hotel room, Mr. Trump got a bit nervous, calling the legally warranted raids a break-in, and went on to say this:
So I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys. Good man. And it’s a disgraceful situation. It’s a total witch hunt.
I’ve been saying it for a long time I wanted to keep it down.
We’ve given I believe over a million pages worth of documents to the special counsel. And I have this with hunt constantly going on for over twelve months now. And it’s a disgrace, it’s frankly a disgrace. It’s an attack on our country in a true sense, it’s an attack on what we all stand for. So we’ll see what happens. I think it’s a disgrace and so does [sic] a lot of other people this is a pure and simple witch hunt.
“Disgrace” — 4 times
“Witch hunt” — 3 times
“Attack” — 2 times
“Good man” — 1 time
Yep, nervous.
“So we’ll see what happens?”
What’s happened is that his “good man” pleaded guilty to multiple counts, including ones that implicated the president himself, and the president turned against him, with a vengeance.
But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
What happens directly after your own personal attorney is the subject of massive FBI raids? You want to keep that attorney on your side as long as you can. So, how do you do that?
abcnews.go.com/...
Lawyers claiming ties to Rudy Giuliani approached Michael Cohen after FBI raids; investigators looking at contacts
-
By ELIANA LARRAMENDIA,
-
JAMES HILL
-
LAUREN PEARLE
Mar 7, 2019, 1:33 AM ET
In the weeks following the federal raids on former Michael Cohen’s law office and residences last April, President Donald Trump's former lawyer and confidant was contacted by two New York attorneys who claimed to be in close contact with Rudy Giuliani, the current personal attorney to Trump, according to sources with direct knowledge of the discussions.
[...]
The sources familiar with the contacts said the two lawyers first reached out to Cohen late in April of last year and that the discussions continued for about two months. The attorneys, who have no known formal ties to the White House, urged Cohen not to leave the joint defense agreement, the sources told ABC News, and also offered a Plan B. In the event Cohen opted to exit the agreement, they could join his legal team and act as a conduit between Cohen and the president’s lawyers.
[...]
The sources tell ABC News that during the multiple conversations between Cohen and the attorneys, there was no explicit discussion or offer of a presidential pardon for Cohen.
But the sources said there was an implicit message that if Cohen hired these lawyers, it could preserve or increase his chances of a pardon down the road, the sources said.
People, these are two lawyers who have not yet been identified, who apparently were hired by Rudy Giuliani himself to serve two purposes:
- Be moles inside Cohen’s legal team, in case the JDA dissolves
- Quietly dangle pardons to Cohen, to keep him quiet
The Southern District of New York knows who they are. So does Robert Mueller.
And this may be where former prosecutor Rudy Giuliani gets a little look-see from the New York States Bar Association, too.
Rudy Giuliani joined Trump in April 2018, quit his law-firm on May 10th, and then became Trump’s full-time lawyer. This coincided with the FBI raids on Michael Cohen, and the hiring of these two lawyers.
Perhaps this is why Rudy’s gone underground lately?
From “America’s Mayor” to losing your law license?
ETTD
Thursday, Mar 7, 2019 · 2:49:59 PM +00:00 · AlyoshaKaramazov
The likely “smoking gun” documents, courtesy of Michael Cohen?
Layers of Criminal Lawyers.
The two attorneys never formally joined Cohen’s legal team but sent Cohen a bill for legal services, which he did not pay, the sources said.
The charges include fees for at least a half a dozen phone calls between the attorneys and Giuliani, according to two sources who have seen the invoice.
You only need a Joint defense agreement when the fear is that layers of lawyers are going to the joint along with their clients or, as in this case, ahead of them.