By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
The FBI raided the office of President Trump’s personal attorney on Monday in search of records about hush money paid to two women who say they had affairs with Trump, the New York Times reported Tuesday afternoon.
The search warrant for the office of Michael Cohen also sought information on the role the publisher of the National Enquirer played in silencing one of the women, Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who claims she had an affair with Trump shortly after his son was born in 2006. McDougal received $150,000 from American Media Inc., the National Enquirer’s parent company, where Trump’s friend is the chief executive.
Agents also were looking for information related to Stormy Daniels, whom Cohen said he paid $130,000 as part of a non-disclosure agreement to keep quiet about her affair with Trump in 2006.
The search was handled by the public corruption unit of the Manhattan federal attorney’s office after receiving a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller, who was appointed to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
On Twitter on Tuesday, Trump called the investigation a “A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!” and said “Attorney–client privilege is dead!”
Trump even publicly floated the idea of firing Mueller, a move that Democrats and some Republicans said would lead to the president’s impeachment.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller in May 2017, signed off on the FBI raid of Cohen’s office.
