Russia Investigation Heating Up

[Androidpk]

Here's an interesting comment I found.

As a lawyer of 35 years, this is one of the most significant developments in the Mueller investigation.

It is extraordinarily hard to convince a judge, who is a former lawyer himself or herself, to pierce the attorney/client privilege and work product doctrine to issue a subpoena and seize material subject to those sacred protections.


The judge must be convinced that Cohen's records will demonstrate substantial criminal activity.


This may be "Black Monday" for Donald Trump.

[Wrathbringer]

And just so the class is clear- warrants require evidence.

Mueller's team has issued a lot of warrants- which means they have a lot of evidence.

And if they were able to breach attorney/client privilege- then that means they suspect that Cohen was involved in illicit activities as Trump's lawyer.

The "class", huh? You're retarded.

[Wrathbringer]

Also, OMGOMGOMG IT"S FINALLY HAPPENING FOR REAL REAL THIS TIME GUYS!!!1!11 IT'S HEATING UP OH GOD IT'S HOT!!!11

[time4fun]

Here's an interesting comment I found.

Yeah- attorney-client privilege is one of the bedrocks of our legal system. Whatever evidence they had going in must have been significant.

The one thing that sticks out though- Trump apparently knew about this raid before he was told about it.

Which makes you wonder if Cohen knew ahead of time as well

[time4fun]

The scary thing for trump had always been that mueller would follow the money and find money laundering on behalf of trump. This isn’t a secret and has been well-documented.

Now you have Cohen wrapped up in this stormy Daniels thing, where he’s being investigated for bank fraud and campaign finance violations. Trump is at least a witness in this or at worst a co-conspirator.

Hopefully trump tries to fire rosenstein over this. Rosenstein did go to the FBI in regards to Cohen after muellers recommendation.

Also, the funny thing is, so many trump supporters are cool with him being a criminal as long as he didn’t conspire with Russia. So much more will come out.

The scary thing is how many Trump supports are cool with him being a criminal who DID conspire with Russia.

I do agree with some of the other assessments here though- Trump's liable to start getting impulsive soon. That means that either he'll rush into an interview to "prove" his innocence (and to separate himself from Cohen), or he's going to do something drastic like force Sessions to resign. If Sessions resigns, Trump can install someone in his place temporarily without having to go through Senate confirmation.

Though Mueller and Rosenstein were VERY smart to refer this out to the FBI. It insulates them from direct retaliation.

[Androidpk]

Do you know what kind of evidence you would have to present to a federal judge to get him to sign a warrant to raid the President's personal attorney's office?

Sure, technically the standard is still probable cause. But in reality, holy shit. The evidence they presented to that judge had to be overwhelming. And the DoJ has many extra procedures you have to jump through, and get approval at the highest levels of the Department, before seeking a warrant on an attorney's office. But the President's attorney's office?


My first reaction as a judge would be, "You want me to sign what??"


Edit: This was a no knock, bust the doors down type of warrant and raid. (See my edit below on this.) So in addition to the probable cause for the search, they had to convince the judge that if they knocked on the door and presented the warrant through the normal course of business, documents would have been destroyed. This is extreme.


As Bill Kristol just said: "This is sending a message. This is war."


Update: They also raided his luxury hotel room simultaneously. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018...new-york-hotel


Edit: The only source for my "no knock" comment was on live CNN TV, on Jake Tapper's show. I cannot find any written source that confirms this as a "no knock" warrant. So until further notice, take this part of my comment with a grain of salt. Whether it was or not, is a very minor detail, we shouldn't care much about anyway. They raided the president's attorney's office and home. A BFD to use the words of our great former VP.


Edit: 5:31PM Eastern: Wolf Blitzer just confirmed on live TV it was in fact a "no knock" warrant.


Update: MSNBC reporting they've raided Cohen's actual home as well. He was staying in a hotel because a water pipe burst in his home, and was being repaired. So they've raided his office, hotel room, and home.

[Wrathbringer]

OMGOMGOMG!!!!!111!1

[SHAFT]

[cwolff]

And they just turned this all over to the SDNY office. Meaning if Mueller gets fired there's still an ongoing FBI investigation into laundering/bank fraud.

Ya baby. That's our sleeper there. I have a lot of hope riding on SDNY

Bannon, as scummy as he is, was absolutely spot on when he said Trump's decision to fire Comey may go down in history as one of the dumbest political moves ever.

I almost miss Bannon now. Kind of like how I catch myself looking back fondly on W's presidency.

Ditto

Anyone watching MSNBC? Chis Mathews opened his show with these words:

"Today the FBI raided the offices of the personal attorney to the President of the United States of America"

That kind of impacted me. It's straight news, no spin, but a heavy heavy sentence.

Time4fun, What do you mean Trump knew before he was told?

[Parkbandit]

The only reason why there is a special counsel investigation is because Trump fired Comey then bragged about it.

The Director of the FBI is employed at the will of the President of the United States and can be terminated at any time and for whatever reason.

The President can brag about whatever he wants.

Neither one is against any law.