President Donald Trump’s alleged history with women is coming back to haunt him. And his longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen is currently taking the fall.
On Monday, FBI agents raided Cohen’s office and hotel room to search for records about payments to two women — Karen McDougal and Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels — who say they had affairs with Trump. The search warrant was carried out by the public corruption unit of the Manhattan federal attorney’s office under a suspicion of fraud and campaign finance violations. – NY Times
During the raid, the FBI seized emails, tax documents, and business records, including ones pertaining to a $130,000 payment to Daniels in exchange for her signing a nondisclosure agreement agreeing not to talk about the alleged affair with Trump (Daniels has since gone public). – NY Times
The investigation was prompted by a recommendation from special counsel Robert Mueller, who tipped off the US attorney for the Southern District of New York. – Washington Post
Cohen’s name has been in the news since he admitted to paying Daniels $130,000 of his own money in exchange for her silence. – Vox
The FBI is also looking for information related to Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who says she had an almost year-long affair with Trump shortly after the birth of his son Barron in 2006, and was allegedly paid $150,000 worth of hush money by the National Enquirer’s parent company, whose CEO is a friend of Trump’s. – CNN
The president is, unsurprisingly, enraged. At the beginning of a meeting with military and national security advisers to discuss Syria, Trump said about the investigation: “It’s a disgraceful situation. It’s a total witch hunt. I’ve been saying it for a long time.” – NPR
And (in a very roundabout way), the president threatened Mueller, by saying that other people have told him to fire the special counsel. That has Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike nervous, although legislation protecting Mueller is stalling in the Senate. – Politico
Now the question is how long is Cohen going to keep it secret! Or is the lawyer of Trump going to fall down rapidly like a cheap and unstable house of cards?
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