FBI raids Trump personal lawyer Cohen’s offices, President calls it witch-hunt

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Monday raided the office and hotel room of Donald Trump’s long-time personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who has admitted to paying an adult film star to keep quiet about her affair with the US president years ago, an official said.

Agents carried away records and documents on various issues including, according to reports, the payment of $130,000 of hush money by Cohen to Stormy Daniels, the porn star whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, in the run-up to the November 2016 elections.

The raid was carried out against search warrants obtained by prosecutors of the office of the US attorney of the Southern District of New York on a referral from Special Counsel Robert Mueller III, who is probing Russian meddling in 2016 elections and alleged collusion by the Trump campaign.

The referral was understood to indicate Mueller’s team had passed on the information because it was not covered by its mandate.

They targeted Cohen’s office in Manhattan’s Rockefeller Plaza and a hotel room where he has been staying with his family as their home undergoes renovation.

The raid was confirmed by Cohen’s lawyer Stephen Ryan, who said it resulted in the “unnecessary seizure of protected attorney-client communications between a lawyer and his clients”.

“The decision by the US Attorney’s Office in New York to conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary,” Ryan said in a statement.

“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,” he added.

The fact that the raid took place on the basis of search warrants issued by a judge meant, said legal experts, there was a probable cause of a crime having been committed.

A very angry Trump linked it to the Russia probe in remarks to reporters before a national security meeting at the White House, deploying the phrase “witch-hunt”, which he has used several times before to attack Mueller’s probe.

Trump said the FBI “broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys” and called it “a disgraceful situation … a total witch-hunt … a whole new level of unfairness”.

“It’s an attack on our country in a true sense. It’s an attack on what we all stand for,” he added.

The president did not mention Daniels or the payment made to her by Cohen, who has claimed he paid her out of his own pocket as part of a non-disclosure agreement signed by her, and that Trump was not aware of it.

The president and the White House have denied Trump had an affair with Daniels — in 2006 that, according to her, included a sexual encounter in his hotel room during a golf tournament for celebrities — and have routinely directed questions about the payment to Cohen.

Daniels has sued to be freed from the agreement arguing it was not valid as Trump did not sign it.

There is nothing criminal about the affair or the payment, but legal and election law experts have said if the money was paid to keep Daniels quiet about the affair ahead of the election, it could be construed as a campaign finance contribution that was way above the permissible limit.

Cohen, in keeping with his public persona of a tough and loyal Trump aide, has waged a very public battle with Daniels and her attorney through friends and lawyers who defend him aggressively in interviews and open debates on prime time cable and network news channels.