The New York Times is reporting that the FBI executed search warrants on the offices of Trump fixer and lawyer Michael Cohen, seizing records related to the Stormy Daniels payoff after Robert Mueller's office referred it to the U.S. Attorney's office.
Cohen's attorney, Steven Ryan, issued a statement saying the search was “completely inappropriate and unnecessary.” He also suggested that the documents seized were "privileged communications."
CNN Legal Analyst Laura Coates joined Jake Tapper to discuss the raids and the reason why they might have executed these warrants.
Coates explained that these types of warrants are used in situations where there is a fear that "the information they are seeking is going to be destroyed or not going to be given up voluntarily,"
According to Tapper, tax documents are being seized as part of this raid. Coates thought that was "extremely significant."
"Remember, we all had questions about what the President of the United States' tax documents would reveal or allude to and now you have somebody who -- just a few days after the President of the United States has confirmed in that off-the-cuff interview in the back of Air Force One that he was unaware of the nature of or the origin of a payment made by his attorney," she said. "You now see the special counsel's office going back to try to confirm or find out information about perhaps other payments, not related to Stormy Daniels..."
"What you see here a pattern by the special counsel of asking and then failing to trust," she explained.
So we basically have a raid which likely got hold of tax documents, payments to porn stars, and more.
Michael Avenatti has already tweeted his thoughts (video here):
I expect rage tweets to begin shortly.
Update:
It wasn't just Cohen's offices, but also his home.
UPDATE 2:
Washington Post reports seizure of "Cohen’s computer, phone and personal financial records."
UPDATE 3: Washington Post is now reporting that Cohen is under investigation for possible bank fraud and campaign finance violations.
UPDATE 4: Trump is unhappy.
And there's this:
