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Bradley Smith has thoroughly debunked one of the rationales for the seizure of attorney-client privileged communications in attorney Michael Cohen's office on suspicion of violation of federal election laws. One[i] of the allegations is that the hush money paid to Stormy Daniels amounted to an in-kind campaign contribution, far exceeding the amount permitted an individual to contribute. Smith demonstrates that this is nonsense in his Wall Street Journal column, titled "Stormy Weather for Campaign Finance Laws."

Attorneys for Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, ahead of a court hearing Monday afternoon, blasted the FBI for its “unprecedented” raid on his properties last week and claimed the feds seized items that “have nothing to do with the probable cause” on which the warrant was granted. .. During that hearing, Cohen’s attorneys also were instructed by Judge Wood to disclose the name of another Cohen client – which attorneys confirmed was Fox News host Sean Hannity.

Sources tell ABC News President Donald Trump spoke Friday with his personal attorney Michael Cohen who, according to court documents, has been under criminal investigation for months, largely centered on his business dealings. Sources say Cohen still remains Trump's attorney. The New York Times first reported the phone call between Trump and Cohen.

FBI agents sought records tied to President Trump’s infamous “Access Hollywood” recording when they raided the law office and hotel room of his personal lawyer, according to a new report Wednesday. The warrant that authorized Monday’s searches also allowed the feds to seize evidence showing whether lawyer Michael Cohen tried to suppress damaging information about Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, the New York Times reported. Cohen has admitted paying porn actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 as part of agreement signed 11 days before the election in which Daniels agreed not to discuss her claim of having slept with Trump in...

The inmates are running the asylum and locking up the guards. When the media first began to spin the raid on the president's lawyer, they claimed that it had been approved by a Trump appointee. Of course it hadn't. It came from Rosenstein on one end. And Trump's appointee had recused himself. That left his deputy, an Obama holdover. Robert Khuzami. And there are reports that he allegedly made the decision. Khuzami was in charge of SEC enforcement under Obama. He did speak at the RNC convention in '04 in support of the Patriot Act and donated to McCain in...

There is much speculation as to the significance of the search of the offices and hotel room of President Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen. To obtain a search warrant, prosecutors must demonstrate to a judge that they have probable cause to believe that the premises to be searched contain evidence of crime. They must also specify the area to be searched, the items to be seized and, in searches of computers, the word searches to be used. At least that’s the constitutional requirement in theory, especially where the Sixth Amendment right to counsel is involved, in addition to the general Fourth...

ABC News has learned that Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is recused from the Michael Cohen investigation. Two sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News Berman was not involved in the decision to raid Cohen's office because of the recusal. The recusal was approved by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) stated it “would be suicide” to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller and President Trump should have “confidence” in Mueller. Grassley said, “I have confidence in Mueller. The president ought to have confidence in Mueller. And I think…it would be suicide for the president to want, to talk about firing Mueller. The less the president said on this whole thing, the better off he would be, the stronger his presidency would be.” Grassley also praised Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ work and argued the...

The FBI sought documents pertaining to Michael Cohen's ownership of taxi medallions when it raided his home and offices on Monday, according to CNN. The request for information on the medallions came in a search warrant authorized by a U.S. District Attorney in New York. Cohen, who has worked as an lawyer for Trump since the president's days as a New York real estate developer, reportedly owns a number of the medallions required for operation of the city's iconic yellow taxis, two sources told CNN. The Monday raid, approved by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, allowed investigators to gather bank...

Jackbooted thugs paid a visit to Trump lawyer Michael Cohen yesterday and according to The New York Times, the feds seized "business records, emails and documents related to several topics, including a payment to a pornographic film actress."

ABC News has learned that Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is recused from the Michael Cohen investigation. Two sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News Berman was not involved in the decision to raid Cohen's office because of the recusal. The recusal was approved by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. The raid of Cohen's handled by others in the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and approved by a federal judge.

Fox News’ Sean Hannity was hosting his radio program this afternoon when the news hit that the FBI raided the office of President Donald Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen. So how did the pro-Trump conservative commentator react to this bombshell? He described it as Special Counsel Robert Mueller going fishing. With the New York Times reporting that the FBI seized records related to the hush payment made to Stormy Daniels and other topics and that the feds obtained the search warrant following a referral from Mueller, Hannity brushed off the $130,000 paid to Daniels. “I do remember Michael saying it publicly...

The F.B.I. on Monday raided the office of President Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, seizing records related to several topics including payments to a pornographic-film actress. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan obtained the search warrant after receiving a referral from the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, according to Mr. Cohen’s lawyer, who called the search “completely inappropriate and unnecessary.” The search does not appear to be directly related to Mr. Mueller’s investigation, but likely resulted from information he had uncovered and gave to prosecutors in New York. “Today the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New...

Excerpt => PAUL: "He is looking at some kind of personal dealings with the President’s lawyer. And imagine, once they get this, they have all of the information that the President has ever discussed with the attorney and they say, 'Oh, we’re not going to use the stuff that’s attorney/client privilege.' But they’ll read it. And you think once they read it it might give them ideas of other places the look. There's this concept called parallel construction. They don’t actually use the information they read but they now have that information and can use it to go snooping in...

FBI insiders on Monday reacted with a collective bewilderment after the office of Trump attorney Michael Cohen was raided. While not minimizing potential problems for Cohen in what appears to be a bank fraud case and possibly election related, FBI veterans reacted with a general disappointment toward FBI Director Christopher Wray’s leadership.“Wray was supposed to break up the nonsense in New York or at least he was expected to try,” one FBI insider said. “Looks like business as usual.” One longtime veteran said the FBI’s action on Monday will only harm the Bureau’s embattled reputation further. “America is looking at...

Mueller Must Go 2018-04-09T17:30:30-04:00 Daniel Greenfield Today's FBI raid signals that Mueller will be using the same tactics against President Trump as he did against Manafort and other targets. That includes going after privileged communications. Does anyone doubt that he can find a friendly judge that will sign off on any abuse of power as long as it's directed against President Trump? This needs to end. And it needs to end now. Federal investigators on Monday searched the office, home and Manhattan hotel room of President Donald Trump’s longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, seizing communications between the lawyer and his clients...

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein personally signed off on raids of the office and residence of President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, the New York Times reported Tuesday, citing sources. This is breaking news. Check back for updates.

In the absence of any public statements from Robert Mueller’s team or the FBI or DOJ – just leaks to pet media outlets – we can only speculate as to the motives for a thermonuclear escalation of tactics being used against President Trump, in the effort to reverse the presidential election of 2016. They have extended the fishing expedition to include seizure of protected communications between the president and his lawyers, now in the hands of the FBI, the same agency that has been stonewalling Congressional investigation into its behavior in launching the surveillance of the Trump campaign on charges...