The FBI just raided Michael Cohen’s office.
Michael Cohen is Donald Trump’s long time consiglieri lawyer, and the fact that they have raided his office, and seized his files, including his communications with clients.
As a non-lawyer, I know that this is a huge deal, because, among other things, it means that Cohen is believed to have actively broken the law, typically by something like actively facilitating fraud, not merely having advised a criminal.
I’ll summarize the comments of a lawyer Ken White:
- This warrant was secured by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the most prominent US Attorney’s office in the nation outside of Washington, DC.
- They thought that they had enough evidence to apply for a warrant searching what is normally privileged communications.
- Getting a warrant to raid a lawyer’s office involves MANY hoops to jump through.
- The court thought that the evidence was convincing enough to grant the warrant.
I am inclined to believe that this is about some sort of fraud, and not any sort of spy-craft involving the FSB or the GRU, particularly since Mueller has already used the “crime-fraud exception” to get some communications with Manafort’s attorney.
This is a big f%$#ing deal.