Now, this is getting good.
On Thursday, President Donald Trump denied having any knowledge that his longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen paid porn actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 not to discuss her relationship with the reality charlatan—a relationship she claimed included sex and the spanking of his orange-tinted buttocks with a rolled-up Forbes magazine.
The New York Times is reporting that on Monday, the FBI raided Cohen’s office, seizing several documents containing information that includes payments to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
“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,” Stephen Ryan, Cohen’s lawyer, told the Times. “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.”
Cohen’s lawyer added that the search and the raid was “completely inappropriate and unnecessary.” The Times reports that the raid doesn’t appear to be connected to Mueller’s Russia investigation, but adds that it’s most likely the result of uncovered information that was passed to federal prosecutors in New York.
According to the Times, Cohen’s role in the Russia investigation appears to be limited to his acts surrounding the 2016 presidential election, in which he claims that, unbeknownst to the president, he decided, on his own, to pay a large amount of money from his personal account to a porn star he had no relationship with, but who claimed to have had a sexual relationship with his client Donald Trump.
Cohen’s lawyer told the Times that his client cooperated with the authorities and turned over thousands of documents, including payment information regarding Daniels. The FBI also seized emails, tax documents and business records, a person with knowledge of the search told the Times.
DISCUSSION
Me at my desk right now: