The FBI on Monday raided the office of President Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, seizing records related to several topics including payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Manhattan federal prosecutors obtained the search warrant for Cohen’s office after receiving a referral from the special counsel, Robert Mueller, according to Cohen’s lawyer, who called the search “completely inappropriate and unnecessary.”
The search does not appear to be directly related to Mueller’s investigation but likely resulted from information he had uncovered and gave to prosecutors in New York.
“Today the US 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. 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 Stephen Ryan said in a statement posted to his firm’s website.
A spokesman for the Manhattan US Attorney’s office declined to comment.
Daniels, a porn star, claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006 and was paid $130,000 in hush money, in a deal hashed out with Cohen, to keep the fling quiet.
But Trump recently said aboard Air Force One that he had no knowledge of the payment to Daniels, who claims she agreed to the deal after being physically threatened by a stranger.
“You’ll have to ask Michael Cohen,” he said. “Michael is my attorney. You’ll have to ask Michael.”