As you likely heard, the FBI raided the Rockefeller Center office of Trump's longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, on Monday morning, seizing business records, emails and documents related to several topics, including a payment to a pornographic film actress.
Besides Michael Cohen's office, the FBI also raided his hotel room at the Loews Regency on Park Avenue, with a handful of agents present at the scene for several hours— and additionally stormed his NY residence.
Here are 2 critical takeaways from the Cohen raids.
1. They were done under the authority of the New York AG, Eric Schneiderman, himself guided by information provided by the office of the Special Counsel, Robert Mueller. Therefore, should Cohen be charged with crimes, they will be judged by the laws of the State of New York. Presidential pardons will not applicable. Presidents have pardoning authority only over federal crimes.
2. Should Cohen be charged with abetting a crime performed by Trump himself, lawyer-client privilege will also not apply.
Trump exploded tonight, both at Rod Rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney General, who authorized this raid and at Robert Mueller, who handed it off the raid but initiated its cause. He once again ranted this was a witch hunt and declared the raids on his lawyer “an attack on our country.”
The level of Trump’s visible anger suggests the fireworks have just begun. When asked if he would fire Rosenstein, he deflected, muttering should he fire Mueller. The answer he gave to his self-posed query was “we’ll see.”
Indeed.
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April 9, 2018
Post Script. Two other Trump appointees, besides Rosenstein,Jeffrey Berman, US Attorney in the Southern District, and Christopher Wray, head of the FBI, will also have signed off on the raid.
