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, computers, personal financial records,emails and documents related to several topics, including a payment to pornographic film actress, Stormy Daniels.
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 U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York based on a referral provided by the office of the Special Counsel, Robert Mueller. Should Cohen be charged with crimes, some of them may involve 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. One Trump appointee, Geoffrey Berman, acting US Attorney in the Southern District, is recused from being involved in this case since he has not yet been confirmed. One other Trump appointee, besides Rosenstein, Christopher Wray, head of the FBI, signed off on the raid on Cohen. Trump doesn't seem to have taken that in...yet.
