Thread: Trump lawyer Michael Cohen under criminal investigation

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WSJ: Michael Cohen facilitated $1.6 million payment on behalf of GOP fundraiser

By Clare Foran, CNN
Updated 2:43 PM ET, Fri April 13, 2018

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump's longtime personal lawyer facilitated a payment of $1.6 million last year to a former Playboy model who claimed that she had become pregnant by Elliott Broidy, a leading GOP fundraiser, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing individuals familiar with the situation.

According to the Journal, Cohen negotiated the payments on Broidy's behalf on the condition that the woman would not speak about the alleged relationship.

In a statement provided to the newspaper, Broidy said via a spokesman that he "had a consensual relationship with a Playboy Playmate" and that at the conclusion of the relationship, the woman told him that she was pregnant. "She alone decided that she did not want to continue with the pregnancy and I offered to help her financially during this difficult period," he said.

The Journal reported that Cohen did not return requests for comment and that a spokesperson for a lawyer representing the woman would not confirm or deny that any such deal exists.

The FBI raided Cohen's office, hotel room and home earlier this week. CNN has reported that FBI agents were seeking communications between the President and Cohen concerning the "Access Hollywood" tape that surfaced prior to the 2016 presidential election. The FBI raids also sought information that included payments allegedly made to keep women silent about affairs with Trump more than a decade ago.

In February, Cohen admitted having paid $130,000 to the adult film actress known as Stormy Daniels, who alleges that she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. Cohen is in a legal dispute over a hush agreement Daniels signed before the 2016 campaign to keep quiet about the alleged affair.

Another source familiar with the matter told CNN on Tuesday that a focus of the raids was to seek records on the deal set up between ex-Playboy playmate Karen McDougal and a company that reportedly paid her during the 2016 presidential campaign cycle to keep her account of an alleged relationship with Trump from publication.

Trump has denied relationships with both Daniels and McDougal.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/13/polit...ent/index.html

DOJ: Michael Cohen 'under criminal investigation'

By Kara Scannell and Katelyn Polantz, CNN
Updated 2:54 PM ET, Fri April 13, 2018

(CNN)Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's personal attorney, is "under criminal investigation," the Justice Department said Friday.

In response to Cohen's motion to restrain the evidence collected in Monday's raids of his home and office, the US attorney in New York asserted the raids were authorized by a federal judge to seek evidence of conduct "for which Cohen is under criminal investigation."

The filing redacts what Cohen is under investigation for.

The filing contains the first details released by the Justice Department on the searches, which covered Cohen's residence, hotel room, office, safety deposit boxes and electronic devices.

Cohen's attorneys have filed a temporary restraining order in the matter. Cohen did not appear in court Friday morning.

Monday's raids included a search for communications related to efforts to suppress negative information ahead of the election, including communications that Trump had with Cohen regarding the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape that captured Trump making lewd remarks about women that surfaced a month before the election, CNN reported this week.

Records related to Cohen's taxi medallion business were also sought.



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Cohen's attorney, Todd Harrison, and President Donald Trump's attorney, Joanna Hendon, asked for an adjournment earlier Friday session so they could review DOJ filing.

Hendon says her firm, Spears & Imes LLP, was engaged by Trump on Wednesday and she was "not prepared" to present her argument.

The Justice Department is asking for a so-called taint team to vet the material seized in the raids Monday, as is standard process. Cohen's lawyer is asking for the lawyers themselves to review the material or a "special master" to decide what is relevant to the case, and Hendon is concerned about a taint team or however the material is handled.

On Monday, Cohen's attorney called the searches "completely inappropriate and unnecessary."

"It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his client," attorney Stephen Ryan said in the statement.

This story has been updated.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/13/polit...aid/index.html

It's all completely outrageous. It's worse than disgusting and despicable that the US Department of Justice would be involved in anything like this and do this to anyone, let alone a business attorney. The FBI and DOJ are corrupt to the core.

Exclusive: FBI raid sought information on taxi owners linked to Trump's lawyer

By Kara Scannell and Gloria Borger, CNN
Updated 1:15 PM ET, Fri April 13, 2018

Washington (CNN)FBI agents who raided the office of President Donald Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen sought information about taxi owners who had financial dealings with Cohen, according to sources familiar with the search warrant.

The warrant, in addition to seeking other records and documents, specifically identified Semyon and Yasya Shatayner, Ukrainian immigrants who own a large taxi operation in Chicago, according to the source. Cohen is listed as someone who repeatedly loaned money to the Shatayners within the past 10 years, according to public records reviewed by CNN.



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The interest in Cohen's communications with the Shatayners indicates US prosecutors are digging deeper into Cohen's personal financial dealings, including his taxi medallion business. The warrant, as CNN previously reported, is also seeking records and communications related to efforts to suppress negative information ahead of the presidential election, including communications Trump had with Cohen regarding the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape that captured Trump making lewd remarks about women and surfaced a month before the election.

The FBI's intensifying interest in Cohen could put new pressure on one of Trump's closest confidants as special counsel Robert Mueller continues his investigation into what the Trump team knew about Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election.

Cohen's attorneys were in court Friday seeking a temporary restraining order in New York to halt investigators' review of the seized evidence.

The Shatayners' connection to Cohen

The Shatayners emigrated to New York City from Ukraine at least four decades ago. Semyon Shatayner started out driving taxis, according to a 1979 article in The New York Times, and by 2004 was involved in the taxi business in Chicago setting up limited liability companies in his wife's name as well as those of others, according to CNN research of public records.

The Shatayners run one of the largest taxi operations in Chicago and own more than three dozen medallions. Taxi medallions, which were once very valuable, are licenses that give the owner a right to operate taxicabs in a particular city.

Values have plummeted with the arrival of ride sharing operators Uber and Lyft.



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Cohen is listed as a "secured party" for 22 of the shell companies associated with the Shatayners, indicating he loaned them money over the past decade, according to an expert familiar with taxi financing, who asked not to be named because his client had not authorized him to speak publicly. It isn't clear what Cohen received as collateral, but the expert says it has likely lost value since medallion values have fallen so sharply.

When medallions were increasing in value, it was common for owners to refinance to take cash profits from the business.

But the drop in value has squeezed many operators, forcing some to sell medallions in foreclosure sales.

New York City medallions were valued in 2014 at an average of $1 million per medallion, according to the New York Attorney General's office. Last month, medallions sold in foreclosure for as little as $175,000 and an average of $355,131, according to city records.



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The Shatayners fell behind on monthly payments on their loans to Signature Financial, and in 2016 the bank sued them.

A private settlement was reached.
The couple has not been accused of any wrongdoing. It is not clear what prompted the FBI's interest in Cohen's communications with them.

The Shatayners did not return calls seeking comment. A lawyer who represented them in the 2016 lawsuit also could not be reached.

How Cohen got into the taxi business

Cohen's foray into the taxi medallion business preceded his time as Trump's personal attorney, but it continued to be a business he managed after he started working for Trump.
Cohen began buying taxi medallions in New York in earnest in the 1990s. He told The Washington Post that he bought some medallions from his wife's parents, who were also in the taxi business. Her father, Fima Shusterman, who also emigrated from the Ukraine, pleaded guilty in 1993 to a financial crime relating to the taxi business, according to court records.



FBI may have seized recorded conversations from Trump's attorney


By 2009, Cohen shifted his focus for the taxi business to Chicago. He continued to buy medallions until 2014, when his last purchase was recorded, according to the CNN review.

That same year, Cohen and his wife, Laura Cohen, took out several loans of unspecified value from Sterling National Bank, according to public filings. They put up the medallions as collateral.

A message left with Sterling National Bank was not immediately returned.

Laura Cohen was not named in the search warrant, according to one source.

The FBI search warrant also sought information about Cohen's communications with Sterling National Bank, The Washington Post reported.



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Cohen took out one loan from Sterling National Bank in December 2014 for an unspecified amount using three of taxi companies as collateral, according to public records and the Post. Cohen also obtained a $1.98 million loan with his in-laws from the bank in 2015, the Post said, citing public records. It is not clear how the Cohens used the proceeds of the financings.

None of Cohen's taxi businesses have been accused of any wrongdoing. But his companies are not without their financial problems.

Cohen's taxi companies owe New York state $85,752 in taxes, according to state warrants filed on six of Cohen's shell companies since 2017, according to CNN research.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/13/polit...ers/index.html

Taxi-owners are governed by the city of New York and state of New York, what in the hell does the US attorney and the DOJ have to do with New York City taxi-cabs in the state of New York??!!

Wake up New Yorkers, the feds are over-stepping their authority into your business.

"It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his client," attorney Stephen Ryan said in the statement.

TRUE! This DOJ move, along with other things, defeat of withholding sanctuary city funding, muslim country ban, looks bad for DOJ - jeff sessions. He does't seem to have the killer instinct sharp lawyers on his team that obama had for the lefts' issues.
Comey claims he looks bewildered. trump is not an easy person to work for either.

As a senator, Jeff was so good at relentlessly exposing obama's unlawful immigration practices on the border and thru out the states. He possibly does not have the support he needs. Did rosenstein run this approval for the raid by Jeff's desk? Hard to believe a presidential matter was only on rosenstein. Could be, don't know how that works. rosenstein & meuller are looking real bad.

John Edwards had an issue involving payout but he walked away on that - disgraced but...Personal matters belong personal. In the news is Cohen negotiating 1.6m for a politician. That is how the power guys operate. Kind of easy to see what Cohen's expertise areas are.

The tapes are so over & done with - guess they want to see if any payouts where made to silence it - but once again personal matter. Wouldn't defend trump on his behaviour with women but I don't want to hear @ it if it has nothing to do with fulfilling his current job as elected president of US.

Agree with you 100% artist. Trashy women should not be on the DOJ radar, let alone their reason to prosecute the people they extorted. This is all devised by the DNC. There is no low too low for them. But this time, like last time, it won't fly. Let them hang themselves. This isn't how Americans want to play their politics. Everyone should have learned that lesson from the Clinton persecution.

Originally Posted by Judy

Taxi-owners are governed by the city of New York and state of New York, what in the hell does the US attorney and the DOJ have to do with New York City taxi-cabs in the state of New York??!!

Wake up New Yorkers, the feds are over-stepping their authority into your business.

FBI — Financial Crimes Investigations
https://www.fbi.gov/news/speeches/financial-crimes-investigations
Financial Crimes Investigations. Grant D. Ashley; Executive Assistant Director; Federal Bureau of Investigation

LOL!! That doesn't apply here to New York taxi-cabs.

Trump fundraiser resigns from RNC after payout report