Responding to the raid in an angry fashion, President Trump has called it ‘’an attack on our country’’ and accused the Justice Department of carrying out a ‘’witch hunt’’.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the Park Avenue Hotel room and Rockefeller Center office of longtime President Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, on Monday morning.
During the raid, the FBI seized documents, business records, and emails in connect to certain topics, including the payment to a pornographic actress Stormy Daniels.
To carry out the raids, a search warrant was necessary. The FBI obtained it after getting a referral from the Russian Investigation’s special Counsel, Robert Mueller III, according to the lawyer of Mr. Cohen.
That said, the search wasn’t directly related to the investigation which Mr. Mueller is carrying out. Instead, reports claim that it resulted directly from the information which Mr. Mueller gathered during the course of his investigation and which he gave to NY prosecutors.
Still, the fact that they were able to obtain a search warrant means the FBI was able to convince a federal judge that they could find evidence of criminal activity during the raid, without which they might not have got the warrants in the first place.
As for President Trump, the searches, which have provided the Justice Department with a new front to investigate him, pose a new dilemma. For, in addition to Michael Cohen facing investigation, prosecutors in Brooklyn are also scrutinizing Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son in law.
Paul Manafort, the former chairman of Trump Presidential campaign, is under indictment, and his former National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. And if that wasn’t troubling enough for the President, Mr. Mueller wants to interview Trump about the possible obstruction of justice.
Finally, analysts believe that by carrying out the raids, the Justice Department has made an aggressive move.
In normal cases, the Justice Department relies on grand jury subpoenas to call people to court and obtain records from them. Search warrants, however, are used when the authorities believe that the person under question won’t be truthful and that they won’t turn over all their records themselves.
Responding to the raids, Stephen Ryan, the lawyer of Mr. Cohen, has said that his client cooperated with the authorities and turned over ‘’thousands of documents’’ to the investigators who are looking into the case of Russian election meddling.
