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Federal prosecutors are treating President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen like he’s a lawyer for the mob, say seasoned white-collar defense attorneys describing the raid on Cohen’s home, office and hotel room.
Lawyers told the Daily Beast that raiding attorneys’ offices isn’t unheard of. But it’s generally used for lawyers who work with alleged members of organized crime, or for lawyers who are involved themselves in elaborate criminal schemes. “It’s a tactic generally used against organized crime, against very serious, very serious criminals and lawyers who are operating outside of the protections of the law,” said attorney Alan Dershowitz, a frequent critic of special counsel Robert Mueller’s tactics.
Also see: Here’s what the FBI raid on Trump lawyer’s office means for the stock market.
High bar for FBI: The raid included the seizure of information about the payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election, and it included communications between Cohen and Trump, notes the Washington Post. That means it included communication between an attorney and his client, which made the bar for obtaining a warrant higher than normal.
But as the Post also explains, the question of what qualifies as privileged communication is complex, and not every communication between an attorney and a client is included. One type that is excluded: communications between an attorney and a client that may be predicated on committing or covering up a crime.
Read: Trump blasts raid on Cohen’s records as ‘an attack on our country.’
Turley on why firing Mueller would be wrong: Legal scholar Jonathan Turley says it’d be a bad idea to fire Mueller. “Why don’t I just fire Mueller?” Trump responded Monday night to a question from a reporter, as CNN writes. As Trump openly contemplates firing the special counsel, Turley writes on his site that such a move would put his presidency at risk.
Among the reasons firing Mueller could backfire on Trump, Turley writes, is Congress could reinstate the Independent Counsel Act, which existed until 1992. “Mueller could conceivably be reappointed under that law,” says Turley.
See full transcript of Trump's comments following FBI raid on Cohen’s office.