NYT: ACTING ON MUELLER'S CRIMINAL REFERRAL, FBI RAIDS OFFICES OF TRUMP'S PERSONAL LAWYER MICHAEL COHEN

They're really going to do this, aren't they?

Gird your loins. This feels like the beginning of the end, one way or the other.

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.

...

The payments to Ms. Clifford are only one of many topics being investigated, according to a person briefed on the search. The F.B.I. also seized emails, tax documents and business records, the person said.

Paying someone to keep her mouth shut is not a crime, or else everyone who pays a blackmailer is himself committing a criminal act. Not saying this woman is a blackmailer, but it's not illegal to pay off a blackmailer.

The only crime I can imagine is being investigated -- pretextually -- is the claim by this porno actress and admitted liar that a thug approached her and recommended she stay silent about Trump, making a vague threat against her and her child.

Is an admitted liar's claim, without any evidence that the thug has anything to do with Michael Cohen, enough for Mueller to generate a criminal referral and for the FBI to secure a warrant? Seems unlikely -- maybe there was evidence of some connection that we're not aware of.

Now, unless there is some real proof that Cohen hired a thug to make a threat, I'm thinking this is a pretext -- like Sally Yates' claim that they had to investigate Michael Flynn because of a possible, hypothetical violation of the dead-letter no-longer-a-law Logan Act -- to grab up other information while allegedly investigating a crime.

I can't declare this is all a set-up, though. It's hard for me to believe that Mueller would make a criminal referral based only on an admitted liar and fame-chaser's vague word, and I can't believe the FBI would dare to seek a warrant based only on that, and I can't believe a judge would issue a warrant based only on that.

But it's not as hard for me to believe as it might have been two years ago.

NYT: ACTING ON MUELLER'S CRIMINAL REFERRAL, FBI RAIDS OFFICES OF TRUMP'S PERSONAL LAWYER MICHAEL COHEN&bodytext=They're really going to do this, aren't they? Gird your loins. This feels like the beginning of the end, one way or the other. The F.B.I. on Monday raided the office of President Trump's longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen,...&topic=world_news"> posted by Ace of Spades at 05:07 PM

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