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Pensacola Discussion Forum » Politics » F.B.I. Raids Office of Trump’s Longtime Lawyer Michael Cohen

F.B.I. Raids Office of Trump’s Longtime Lawyer Michael Cohen

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EmeraldGhost
Floridatexan
PkrBum
Deus X
Telstar
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Telstar

Telstar

The F.B.I. on Monday raided the office of President Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, seizing records related to several topics including payments to a pornographic-film actress.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan obtained the search warrant after receiving a referral from the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, according to Mr. Cohen’s lawyer, who called the search “completely inappropriate and unnecessary.” The search does not appear to be directly related to Mr. Mueller’s investigation, but likely resulted from information he had uncovered and gave to prosecutors in New York.

“Today the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York executed a series of search warrants and seized the privileged communications between my client, Michael Cohen, and his clients,” said Stephen Ryan, his lawyer. “I have been advised by federal prosecutors that the New York action is, in part, a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller.





https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/09/us/politics/fbi-raids-office-of-trumps-longtime-lawyer-michael-cohen.html

Deus X

Deus X

Mueller's toast.

PkrBum

PkrBum

https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/politics/wp/2018/04/09/to-search-michael-cohens-home-and-office-the-fbi-had-to-clear-a-higher-than-normal-bar/

Floridatexan

Floridatexan

Deus X wrote:Mueller's toast.

F.B.I. Raids Office of Trump’s Longtime Lawyer Michael Cohen IMG_0366

Deus X

Deus X

Mueller may be getting closer but the ice he's skating on is so thin you'd need fiber optics and an scanning electron microscope to even see it. Sessions and Rosenstein as well. Think: "Saturday Night Massacre".

Unless the balance of the Senate changes in November, Trump is, more likely than not, going to finish out his term.

Floridatexan

Floridatexan

Deus X wrote:Mueller may be getting closer but the ice he's skating on is so thin you'd need fiber optics and an scanning electron microscope to even see it. Sessions and Rosenstein as well. Think: "Saturday Night Massacre".

Unless the balance of the Senate changes in November, Trump is, more likely than not, going to finish out his term.

Why so cynical? Even if Mueller were out, NY AG Schneiderman can continue the investigation, and Drumpf can't pardon state offenses.

EmeraldGhost

EmeraldGhost

Deus X wrote:Mueller's toast.

Really, now?  Ya think?  How's that .... you think Trump is gonna "fire" him ... like this is some kinda TV reality show or something?   Nah ... we're well past that.  Trump won't get away with doing an obstructive hit-job on Mueller like he did on Comey (and I'm not so sure he's gotten away with the Comey thing either ... time will tell.)

You are aware, are you not, that the FBI's investigation into the payoff/hush-money paid to Ms Daniels/Clifford is being conducted by the FBI itself ... not Mueller's special counsel team.  This investigation is separate and apart from the Russia election meddling investigation.  Mueller's team simply sent a referral to the FBI because the information they had come across regarding Cohen and this payment did not fit the scope of Mueller's mandate.

Also ... the bank account of Ms Daniels/Clifford's attorney that Cohen transferred the 130k to (via a Delaware shell company set up specifically for that purpose ... namely "Essential Consultants")    The bank flagged the transaction and submitted an SAR (Suspicious Activity Report) to FINCEN ( way back in February 2017? I think?).   There may also be legal issues regarding how Cohen obtained the 130k in the first place .... allegedly via a home equity loan ... and if he was in some way reimbursed by someone.

As to the SAR issued by the bank .... SAR's are not uncommon and not evidence of a crime in and of themselves.  Banks submit SAR's on any large transactions that appear abnormal ... and especially if the money seems to be coming to/from/through shell companies. (I was on a USAO sponsored interagency money laundering task force for a few years ... I've reviewed literally thousands of SAR's)

As to search warrants and attorney-client privilege ... I can also tell you a Federal search warrant on an attorney's office is very hard to get.  Let me re-phrase that ... not "very", rather "extremely."  First off they have to be internally approved at some of the highest levels of one's agency ... regardless of how high profile the investigation is or isn't.   Once that hurdle is cleared one will find US District and Magistrate Judges are very skeptical/cautious when you start investigating the attorneys of the various POI's in an investigation.   You better have some clear and convincing PC to do that ... and no Agent wants to besmirch his/her professional reputation by having a search warrant shot down by the Judge.   Remember ... most of these guys are career Agents.  President's come and go, but the rank-and-file (not political appointees) know they're in it for a whole 20 or 30 years and they're going to work under several Presidential administrations of both parties.   And it's not like high-profile politically charged investigations are done without oversight.  There's likely four or five layers of oversight over everything the FBI is doing with regards to Trump, Cohen, Russia, etc.   No room for cowboying when you've got that level of scrutiny going on.  It just doesn't work that way.   Supervisory Agents/Managers who are career Federal LEO managers just aren't gonna stick their necks out for some lone-ranger cowboy Agent or team of Agents doing something that could potentially get that supervisor/manager in trouble later.



Last edited by EmeraldGhost on 4/10/2018, 9:33 am; edited 2 times in total

zsomething



Trump's stupid enough to do it (hell, Trump's stupid enough to eat refrigerator magnets if they're shaped like cookies), but I don't think the people around him will let him fire Mueller. That'd be signing up for definite obstruction of justice. Firing Muelller would do him more harm than good. He's stupid enough to do it, but his handlers aren't, and on some things they'll block him. God, imagine how exhausting it must be to have to manage this half-senile willful man-toddler all day and all night. It's gotta be like pushing sewage up a hill.

Cohen's nabbed for campaign finance violations, and likely bank fraud. I don't think they'd have made this move if they didn't already have an airtight case for that. And it's going to have some tie to Russia, most likely. I've heard things about wire transfers from the Ukraine involving him, but I'm not putting too much stock in it yet since it's just rumor. But some kind of Russia link is likely to have sparked this move.

EmeraldGhost

EmeraldGhost

Deus X wrote:Mueller may be getting closer but the ice he's skating on is so thin you'd need fiber optics and an scanning electron microscope to even see it.


"thin ice" huh?   How so?   I'd love to hear some further explanation supporting that statement.   Please enlighten us further.


Deus X wrote:
Sessions and Rosenstein as well. Think: "Saturday Night Massacre".


One would think if Trump was gonna can Sessions and Rosenstein he'd have already done it.   Sessions and Rosenstein aren't going to play Trump's "obstruction" game ...and I doubt anyone Trump would appoint as their replacements would either if they have even an ounce of professional integrity.


Deus X wrote:
Unless the balance of the Senate changes in November, Trump is, more likely than not, going to finish out his term.

I don't think the liberal wet-dream of impeaching Trump would happen either way.   He'll finish out his term, hopefully without doing too much damage to the USA & the world, and not get re-elected.   I only hope some decent, capable, and qualified Republican will step up and challenge him in the primary.   (Though, I guess decency and qualifications are not a requirement at all for about 1/3 or Republican leaning voters at the moment Hey, Demos ... you want those people back?   Maybe the R's can trade them for some of your more conservative/traditional minded Latinos?)

EmeraldGhost

EmeraldGhost

zsomething wrote:

...  Cohen's nabbed for campaign finance violations, and likely bank fraud. ....

Based on the information that's come out in the media to date, if I had to make an educated guess I'd have to say you are correct those are the two areas of prospective charges they are looking at.

I would further guess they already had 3/4 or more of what they need before they even went for the Cohen search warrant ... and they knew already specifically what they were looking to find there.

Deus X

Deus X

Trump's rant is what makes me think he's getting ready to fire Mueller. Here's a link to the full transcript:  https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/full-transcript-of-trump-pool-spray-rant-on-cohen-fbi-raid

That's also the reason I think Sessions and Rosenstein are on the way out. He's already pissed at Sessions for recusing himself and mentions that in his rant, as well as calling out Rosenstein by name:

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think it’s a disgrace what’s going on. We’ll see what happens. But I think it’s really a sad situation when you look at what happened. And many people have said, “You should fire him.” Again, they found nothing. And in finding nothing, that’s a big statement. If you know the person who’s in charge of the investigation, you know about that. Deputy Rosenstein — Rod Rosenstein — he wrote the letter, very critical, of Comey.

One of the things they said: “I fired Comey.” Well, I turned out to do the right thing, because if you look at all of the things that he’s done and the lies, and you look at what’s gone on at the FBI with the insurance policy and all of the things that happened — turned out I did the right thing.

But he signed — as you know, he also signed the FISA warrant. So Rod Rosenstein, who’s in charge of this, signed a FISA warrant, and he also signed a letter that was essentially saying to fire James Comey. And he was right about that. He was absolutely right.

So we’ll see what happens. I think it’s disgraceful, and so does a lot of other people. This is a pure and simple witch hunt.

I think he's going to stew over this until the internal pressure overcomes his limited impulse control and POP! Goes the Weasel.

polecat

polecat

Like Trump, his enablers, and supporters, Cohen thought his position as a Trump inner-circle member would protect him indefinitely. He believed, after so many years of getting away with every kind of shenanigan at Trump’s behest, that the facts would never matter, the music would never stop, and the party would never end. Again, he’s a perfect metaphor for this administration.

If Cohen had a lump of coal in his ass the moment those search warrants arrived, he could have popped out a diamond.

Deus X

Deus X

"Curiouser and curiouser!" Cried Alice.

This whole thing just gets better and better by the minute. One of the things mentioned in the Cohen search warrant was items relating to NYC taxi medallions. Cohen was involved with a Russian-American "businessman", Evgeny Friedman, who was known as the "Taxi King".

Friedman is already in a jam with New York state over millions in back taxes and spent time in jail in Chicago for missing a court date and "indirect criminal contempt", whatever that is.

http://www.businessinsider.com/nyc-taxi-king-rise-fall-2017-8

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/nyc-taxi-king-serving-28-days-jail-defying-judge-order-article-1.3699230

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20170607/TRANSPORTATION/170609901/taxi-king-evgeny-freidman-arrested-for-tax-fraud

Friedman's also got problems in Philadelphia.

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/transportation/20160813_Taxi_company_drama_left_over_100_drivers_without_cars.html

Friedman's father was a nuclear physicist in the Soviet Union before he emigrated to the U.S. in '76. He drove cab and eventually started a business he left to his son.

I guess that Russian connection is how Mueller got into this before he turned it over to the U.S. Attorney.

Deus X

Deus X

polecat wrote:
If Cohen had a lump of coal in his ass the moment those search warrants arrived, he could have popped out a diamond.

MANY MUCH OUT LOUD LAUGHINGS!

zsomething



Right-wingers are seriously losing their goddamn minds about this.

I just got through reading some goofus who thinks this is all part of a QAnon plot (if you haven't heard of QAnon, it's almost too insane to be believed, but a lot of right-wingers also think the Earth is flat now, so there's really no level of madness that they'll say "nope" to anymore), and that Cohen was the one who slept with Stormy Daniels, and he framed Trump for it, and Mueller (who's secretly working with Trump to get Hillary and Obama, who were the people really colluding with Russia, and pretending to be after Trump because Trump's actually a genius playing 12th-dimensional chess) is going to uncover it, and... god knows what else. It all devolved into a bunch of Bible quotes and prayers to Jesus and stuff.

So many people are so fucking crazy right now I honestly don't know what we're going to do with them. A bunch of people claim they'll start up another Civil War if Trump gets indicted. O' course, most of 'em are talking smack, but I'm not sure how long the country can struggle along with so many people being that level of upset and crazy and believing ridiculous stuff. They can't stand to admit they're fools who elected a clown, and they're going to do all kinds of mental gymnastics so they don't have to face the fact that they're stupid and easily tricked. That could well get ugly.

polecat

polecat

Trump sends National Guard to his accountant's office. - Andy Borowitz


Overheard: MAGA apparently stands for "My Attorney's Getting Arrested."- George Takei


He's Cohen down... or am I Russian to judgment? Is it an optical collusion or just Watergate under the bridge? Is he dis-Putin all the allegations? Is he in t-Ruble? - Tyler Gorash



F.B.I. Raids Office of Trump’s Longtime Lawyer Michael Cohen Dabihy10

RealLindaL



zsomething wrote:They can't stand to admit they're fools who elected a clown, and they're going to do all kinds of mental gymnastics so they don't have to face the fact that they're stupid and easily tricked.  That could well get ugly.

Sadly and nervously agree.

PkrBum

PkrBum

EmeraldGhost wrote:
zsomething wrote:

...  Cohen's nabbed for campaign finance violations, and likely bank fraud. ....

Based on the information that's come out in the media to date, if I had to make an educated guess I'd have to say you are correct those are the two areas of prospective charges they are looking at.  

I would further guess they already had 3/4 or more of what they need before they even went for the Cohen search warrant ... and they knew already specifically what they were looking to find there.

Sooo.... hush money to a whore is potential bank fraud and campaign finance violations. But millions circuitously funneled from Hillary and the dnc to commission Russian counterintelligence gets a pass even when it's presented unverified to fisa courts in order to surveil the opposition party is A OK. You people need help. You can't even play by the rules you so desperately want to impose on others. A classic ends justify the means leftist tactic. The whole thing deserves to blow up in your faces.

Telstar

Telstar

polecat wrote:Trump sends National Guard to his accountant's office. - Andy Borowitz


Overheard: MAGA apparently stands for "My Attorney's Getting Arrested."- George Takei


He's Cohen down... or am I Russian to judgment? Is it an optical collusion or just Watergate under the bridge? Is he dis-Putin all the allegations? Is he in t-Ruble? - Tyler Gorash



F.B.I. Raids Office of Trump’s Longtime Lawyer Michael Cohen Dabihy10





Yes those were the good old days before the republigun cancer.

EmeraldGhost

EmeraldGhost

:

F.B.I. Raids Office of Trump’s Longtime Lawyer Michael Cohen Better_call_saul_1

Floridatexan

Floridatexan

PkrBum wrote:
EmeraldGhost wrote:
zsomething wrote:

...  Cohen's nabbed for campaign finance violations, and likely bank fraud. ....

Based on the information that's come out in the media to date, if I had to make an educated guess I'd have to say you are correct those are the two areas of prospective charges they are looking at.  

I would further guess they already had 3/4 or more of what they need before they even went for the Cohen search warrant ... and they knew already specifically what they were looking to find there.

Sooo.... hush money to a whore is potential bank fraud and campaign finance violations. But millions circuitously funneled from Hillary and the dnc to commission Russian counterintelligence gets a pass even when it's presented unverified to fisa courts in order to surveil the opposition party is A OK. You people need help. You can't even play by the rules you so desperately want to impose on others. A classic ends justify the means leftist tactic. The whole thing deserves to blow up in your faces.

F.B.I. Raids Office of Trump’s Longtime Lawyer Michael Cohen Tenor

polecat

polecat

I can’t believe Hillary wrapped the murder weapon in Obama’s birth certificate and hid it in Michael Cohen’s office. - John Zal


F.B.I. Raids Office of Trump’s Longtime Lawyer Michael Cohen Dahxxv10

Floridatexan

Floridatexan


Special counsel Mueller on the move, requests 35 new sets of blank subpoenas from a federal judge



https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/4/11/1756232/-Mueller-on-the-move-requests-35-new-sets-of-blank-subpoenas-from-a-federal-judge?detail=emaildkre

For July 10, the day Manafort goes on trial.

PkrBum

PkrBum

Blank subpoenas... lol. Dems get blanket immunities... pubs get blank subpoenas.

You can't make this shit up.

Telstar

Telstar

Don't bother stomping out the flaming red bag of shit just vote it out!





F.B.I. Raids Office of Trump’s Longtime Lawyer Michael Cohen Bag11

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