Thread: Rod Rosenstein Signed Off on FBI Raid of Michael Cohen

Rod Rosenstein signed off on FBI raid of Michael Cohen's office: Report


April 10, 2018

Melissa Quinn


Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein personally approved the FBI’s decision to raid Michael Cohen’s office in New York, according to a report.



Sources told the New York Times that Rosenstein’s involvement in the decision to raid the office of Cohen, President Trump’s longtime attorney, led the president to vent about whether he should fire the No. 2 official at the Justice Department.

During the raid, agents were reportedly searching for documents related to payments made to two women who claim to have had extramarital affairs with Trump more than a decade ago. The New York Times reported that FBI agents were also looking for information about American Media Inc., the parent company of the National Enquirer, which paid one of the women $150,000.


The woman who received the money from American Media Inc. is Karen McDougal, an ex-Playboy model who said she had a yearlong affair with Trump in 2006.


The search warrant also sought information regarding Stormy Daniels, a former adult film actress whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford. Daniels said she had a sexual encounter with Trump after they met in 2006. She received $130,000 from Cohen as part of a confidentiality agreement she signed just before the 2016 election in exchange for her silence about the affair.


Cohen admitted to facilitating the payment to Daniels, but has denied Trump knew about the money.


Rosenstein tapped special counsel Robert Mueller to lead the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the probe and Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey in May. He now oversees Mueller’s investigation, which also includes obstruction of justice by Trump.


Though Rosenstein has to approve Mueller’s moves, that may not be the case for searches conducted by other federal authorities. Prosecutors have to speak with senior criminal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., before they search a lawyer’s records, the New York Times reported. However, the deputy attorney general does not necessarily have to be involved in those discussions.


Trump has fumed that the investigation into Russian meddling is a “witch hunt” and called the FBI’s raid of Cohen’s office a “disgraceful situation.”


But the top officials involved in the raid are all Republicans, the New York Times noted, including Rosenstein, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and interim U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman.

ABC News reported Tuesday that Berman recused from the investigation involving Cohen, and Rosenstein approved his recusal.


Trump reportedly thought about firing Rosenstein last year and is again frustrated with the deputy attorney general. But lawmakers are also concerned the president will fire Mueller.

When discussing the raid with reporters Monday, Trump said “many people” have told him to fire the special counsel and criticized the team of investigators Mueller has assembled.

The president fired off a pair of tweets Tuesday morning, saying the raids were a “total witch hunt” and claiming “attorney-client privilege is dead.”


https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...-office-report

Rosenstein is on a road he can't seem to get off of. So let him drive himself over the cliff. This twerp has met his match with the Trumpsters.

Raid on Trump’s Lawyer Sought Records of Payments to Women

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR, MATT APUZZO, MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT, SHARON LaFRANIERE and MAGGIE HABERMAN
APRIL 10, 2018



Raids on the office and hotel room of Michael D. Cohen, center, President Trump’s personal lawyer, suggest that the political challenges for Mr. Trump are becoming serious legal issues. Credit Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call, via Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. agents who raided the office of President Trump’s personal lawyer on Monday were looking for records about payments to two women who claim they had affairs with Mr. Trump, and information related to the publisher of The National Enquirer’s role in silencing one of the women, several people briefed on the investigation said.
The search warrant carried out by the public corruption unit of the Manhattan federal attorney’s office seeks information about Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who claims she carried on a nearly yearlong affair with Mr. Trump shortly after the birth of his son in 2006. Ms. McDougal was paid $150,000 by American Media Inc., The Enquirer’s parent company, whose chief executive is a friend of Mr. Trump’s.
Agents were also searching the office and hotel room of the lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, for information related to Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels, who says she also had sex with Mr. Trump while he was married. Mr. Cohen has acknowledged that he paid Ms. Clifford $130,000 as part of a nondisclosure agreement to secure her silence just days before the 2016 presidential election.
Mr. Cohen’s lawyer, Stephen Ryan, on Monday called the raids “inappropriate and unnecessary.” In an email on Tuesday, he referred back to that statement.
American Media released a statement saying that the company “has, and will continue to, comply with any and all requests that do not jeopardize or violate its protected sources or materials pursuant to our First Amendment rights.” The statement did not say whether it had received such a request.

In a tweet on Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Cohen quoted an author who said that “a person who deserves my loyalty receives it” and added that “I will always protect our @POTUS @realDonaldTrump.”
Mr. Trump has been dogged for months by accusations that women with whom he allegedly had affairs were paid to keep quiet before the election — charges that the White House has repeatedly said he denies. In a brief statement last week on Air Force One, the president said he did not know about the $130,000 payment to Ms. Clifford, referring questions about it to Mr. Cohen.


Critics of the president have claimed that payments to Karen McDougal, left, and Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels, amount to illegal campaign contributions. Credit Getty Images

But the raids on Monday suggest that the political challenges for the president are becoming serious legal issues, as criminal investigators dig into Mr. Cohen’s activities, including, potentially, his communications with the president about the payments.
Ms. McDougal has claimed that she had a 10-month affair with Mr. Trump 12 years ago, saying on CNN recently that she was intimate with him multiple times during what she described as a consensual affair. American Media, which is owned by David J. Pecker, agreed to pay Ms. McDougal $150,000 for the rights to her story in August 2016 after Mr. Trump secured the Republican nomination, but did not publish it in a practice known as “catch and kill.”
Ms. Clifford, a pornographic film star who told her story on CBS’s “60 Minutes” last month, is aggressively challenging the nondisclosure agreement she agreed to in October 2016, claiming that it is void because Mr. Trump never signed the document. Michael Avenatti, her current lawyer, has filed motions to have Mr. Trump deposed in the case.
It is unclear exactly why the New York investigators are examining the payments. But critics of the president have claimed that they amount to illegal campaign contributions — from Mr. Cohen and American Media — to the president’s campaign because they helped Mr. Trump win the White House by keeping politically damaging stories out of public view.
The F.B.I. also searched for records related to Mr. Cohen’s taxicab business, apparently a separate line of inquiry unrelated to Mr. Trump. Mr. Cohen is a longtime owner of taxi medallions, at one point operating a fleet of more than 200 cabs in Manhattan.
The raids heightened the sense of anxiety inside the White House and around Washington as the president reacted to the news by lashing out at his top law enforcement officials on Monday evening. Mr. Trump called the court-authorized raids an “attack on our country” — unusually harsh language that he has not used to describe Russia’s attempts to influence an American election using hacking and propaganda.

Rod J. Rosenstein, the veteran Republican prosecutor handpicked by Mr. Trump to serve as deputy attorney general, personally signed off on Monday’s F.B.I. decision to raid the office of Mr. Cohen, a longtime confidant of Mr. Trump, several government officials said.

The early-morning searches enraged Mr. Trump, associates said, setting off a public tirade Monday evening that continued in private at the White House as the president fumed about whether he should fire Mr. Rosenstein.

As Mr. Trump has stewed over the developments, he has cast blame in many directions. Publicly, he has expressed frustration with his attorney general and deputy attorney general. Privately, people close to the president said, he has also blamed Mr. Cohen for publicly acknowledging the payments to Ms. Clifford.

The episode has deeply unsettled White House aides, Justice Department officials and lawmakers from both parties, who believe the president may use it as a pretext to purge the team leading the investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election.
Searching a lawyer’s files is among the most sensitive moves federal prosecutors can make as they pursue a criminal investigation. Mr. Rosenstein’s personal involvement in the decision signals that the evidence seen by law enforcement officials was significant enough to convince the Justice Department’s second in command that such an aggressive move was necessary.

Mr. Trump’s advisers have spent the last 24 hours trying to persuade the president not to make an impulsive decision that could put the president in more legal jeopardy and ignite a controversy that could consume his presidency, several people close to Mr. Trump said. The president began Tuesday morning with a pair of angry tweets, calling the raids “A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!” and venting that “attorney–client privilege is dead!”

Mr. Trump has long been mistrustful of Mr. Rosenstein, who appointed the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, and now oversees his investigation into Mr. Trump’s campaign and possible obstruction of justice by the president. In his remarks on Monday night, the president lashed out at Mr. Rosenstein for having “signed a FISA warrant,” apparently a reference to the role Mr. Rosenstein played in authorizing the wiretap of a Trump associate in the Russia inquiry.

Mr. Trump considered firing Mr. Rosenstein last summer. Instead, he ordered Mr. Mueller to be fired, then backed down after the White House counsel refused to carry out the order, The New York Times reported in January. Mr. Trump is now again telling associates that he is frustrated with Mr. Rosenstein, according to one official familiar with the conversations.

While Mr. Rosenstein must sign off on all moves that Mr. Mueller makes, that is not necessarily the case for searches — like this one — that are carried out by other federal law enforcement offices. Justice Department regulations require prosecutors to consult with senior criminal prosecutors in Washington, but not necessarily the deputy attorney general, before conducting a search of a lawyer’s files.

The involvement of Mr. Rosenstein and top prosecutors in New York in the raid of Mr. Cohen’s office makes it harder for Mr. Trump to argue that his legal problems are the result of a witch hunt led by Mr. Mueller. In addition to Mr. Rosenstein, all of the top law enforcement officials involved in the raid are Republicans: Mr. Mueller; Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director; and Geoffrey Berman, the interim United States attorney in New York.


Mr. Trump has long been mistrustful of Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, who appointed the special counsel and now oversees his investigation. Credit Win Mcnamee/Getty Images

While Mr. Trump is focused for the moment on Mr. Rosenstein, many of the president’s advisers and allies are fearful that the president also intends to fire Mr. Mueller in an attempt to end the Russia investigation. Asked by reporters on Monday night whether he intends to do so, Mr. Trump said, “We’ll see what happens.”

“But I think it’s really a sad situation when you look at what happened,” the president added. “And many people have said you should fire him. Again, they found nothing and in finding nothing, that’s a big statement.”
The prospect that Mr. Trump might fire Mr. Mueller was met with fierce responses from Democrats and some Republicans, who warned that such a move would be disastrous for the White House.
Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday on Fox Business Network that “it would be suicide for the president to want to talk about firing Mueller.”

Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the top Democrat in the House, on Monday called Mr. Trump’s attacks on Mr. Mueller and his team a “grave reminder of his utter contempt for the rule of law.”
The raids are also likely to complicate Mr. Trump’s negotiations with Mr. Mueller over the terms of a possible interview. Mr. Trump’s lawyers have warned that such an interview would be incredibly risky, but Mr. Trump had been confident in his ability and was eager to sit for an interview. People close to the president said the raids could change that thinking.
The president has for months been harshly critical of Attorney General Jeff Sessions for having recused himself in the Russia investigation. Mr. Trump renewed that criticism Monday night, saying that “he made what I consider to be a very terrible mistake for the country, but you’ll figure that out.”

As the president’s attacks became more severe over the past months, top Justice Department officials quietly worried about what to do should Mr. Trump fire the special counsel or one of his top officials. They chose to band together in a public show of solidarity in late February, when Mr. Sessions dined with Mr. Rosenstein and Noel J. Francisco, the solicitor general who would oversee the Russia investigation should Mr. Rosenstein be fired.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/10/u...T.nav=top-news

Michael Cohen is going to interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN this hour. Tune in if you're interested, should be coming up now. Oh, interview is with Don Lemon on Don Lemon show tonight, Don Lemon is on speaking about the interview.

Originally Posted by Judy

Michael Cohen is going to interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN this hour. Tune in if you're interested, should be coming up now. Oh, interview is with Don Lemon on Don Lemon show tonight, Don Lemon is on speaking about the interview.

With all that Mr. Cohen could face, interviewing with CNN, who despises his client seems risky. Eyes and hears from foes will be glued to Mr. Cohen for any potential morsel to use against him and the president.

Trump responds to FBI raid on Michael Cohen + other interviews..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfvwHwwtFu8

Trump's full interview on FBI raid..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kjpvvrx2CA8

Originally Posted by GeorgiaPeach

With all that Mr. Cohen could face, interviewing with CNN, who despises his client seems risky. Eyes and hears from foes will be glued to Mr. Cohen for any potential morsel to use against him and the president.

I missed the earlier Don Lemon program where I thought they were going to interview Cohen, it wasn't an in person interview on camera, apparently Lemon just called him or something and reported some general statements. I checked in with the re-run of the program and they're still just putting up quotes from the conversation. Either Cohen didn't agree to be interviewed in person or on camera or the interview didn't fit CNN's narrative.

So as of this evening almost all of the news reporting was wrong. Mueller didn't order the raid of Cohen's home, hotel room and office. FBI didn't order the raid. The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York didn't order the raid.

Rob Rosenstein ordered the raid.

Why in the world would Rosenstein set himself up for such a dud about a civil matter being handled by other courts?!! The US attorney in New York recused himself wanting nothing to do with it. Wray didn't have anything to do with it, his FBI Director job reports to Rosenstein so he just does or has his FBI do what Rosenstein orders. In this case, I don't even think Mueller had much to do with it, he refers a rumor from the women, and says hey this isn't our job but if someone else wants to look into it, there might be something there unrelated to our mission. This is Rosenstein reeling towards the cliff, just like he did when he appointed a Special Counsel himself to begin this whole charade over a firing of James Comey that he recommended, wasting all this taxpayer money, investigating a pure hoax to try to take down the President, which is the complete opposite of what Attorney Generals and Deputy Attorney Generals are paid to do. They are paid to uphold the Constitution and protect the duly elected certified President of the United States from political witch hunts, they are not paid to wage them.

I'm beginning to think Rosenstein is unstable. He reminds me of Barney Fife.

Look at the illogical actions:

1. He convinces Sessions we need a Special Counsel.
2. He convinces Sessions to recuse so he Rosenstein can appoint the Special Counsel.
3. He appoints a Special Counsel to investigate the Russia Hoax because Trump fired Comey, even though Rosenstein had recommended Comey be fired.
4. He appoints a Special Counsel to investigate the Russia Hoax to look for campaign collusion with Russia which even if there was collusion is not a crime.
5. He indicts 13 Russians over Facebook ads that had nothing to do with Trump or the Trump Campaign, indictments that will never be prosecuted and thus never shown to be valid or invalid, because there is no extradition agreement with Russia.
6. He expands the role of the Russia Hoax to include tax fraud and money laundering to try and prosecute Gates and Manafort for something they were investigated years earlier about and there wasn't enough proof to indict let alone win a case.
7. He starts a new investigation against Trump's attorney, Cohen, but has to force Berman to recuse to even order the raid.
8. He orders the raid because no one else will.
9. He raids and doesn't find anything so is asking for information from Cohen's attorney AFTER the raid. And yes, they did break-in, because the warrant was a no-knock warrant, so when Trump accuses them of breaking in, he's absolutely right, because that's what you do to get inside locked homes, hotel room doors and offices early in the morning without knocking.

In my opinion, as harmful as it is to our country and citizens, Trump just needs to let Rosenstein keep driving himself over the cliff, because when the public and swamp learn all the details of what is actually going on here, even they will turn on him, and he'll crash and burn at the bottom of the cliff.

One does have to wonder why when the Cohen matter has nothing to do with the Russia investigation, why Sessions wasn't involved in this and why he allowed Rosenstein to order such a raid to investigate a matter that is already in the courts with the lawsuit. My guess and hope is that Rosenstein was acting on his own to deal with the referral from Mueller and Sessions didn't know anything about it until he saw on TV like the rest of us.

It's all truly the most bizarre thing in the world. But I would give him all the rope he needs to hang himself. And that may be exactly what Trump and Sessions are doing.

rosenstein seems to be part of the impeach trump crew - undercover. He blatantly lied with noticeable voice, speech mannerisms that he would not let mueller go to any other areas than russian collusion. Fire him!

To pull this number, interfering with personal matters & client-lawyer matters shows what a hypocrite he is in accepting, being paid for his job. It is subversive activity to plot and plan the unnecessary take down of a president. It IS an attack on the US because trump is the sitting president. schumer can make fun, it is not 911 etc because he is a jerk and part of impeach trump too. Always working against in every way.

Larry Sinclair, obama's proposed back seat number is jealous stormy is getting all this attention & future earning monies with her websites, tv appearances etc. trump should fire him - have jeff sessions fire him. Who cares @ trump's risky life style - a rich New Yorker with entertainment world ties, the women fell all over him his whole life. Does he act like a jerk - yes. He certainly likes falsified bodies on women and has told some in the past to get a breast job. Am not surprised, am surprised he got the Evangelicals vote. Nothing new in men with power. Wondering why cohen told the nyt @ the payment?