The FBI agents who raided the office and hotel of President Trump’s lawyer Monday were seeking all records related to the “Access Hollywood’’ tape in which Trump was heard making vulgar comments about women, according to three people who have been briefed on the contents of a federal search warrant.
The search warrant also sought evidence of whether the lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, tried to suppress damaging information about Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.
The disclosure comes a day after it was revealed that authorities also sought documents from Cohen related to payments made to two women who claim they had affairs with Trump, Karen McDougal and Stephanie Clifford, as well as information on the role of the publisher of The National Enquirer in silencing the women.
The new details from the warrant reveal that prosecutors are keenly interested in Cohen’s unofficial role in the Trump campaign. And they help explain why Trump was furious about the raid. People close to Trump and Cohen regard the warrant as an attempt by the special counsel, Robert Mueller, to pry into Trump’s personal life — using other prosecutors as his proxy.
new york times
Trump orders Justice Dept. to hire ousted aide
President Trump personally ordered the Department of Justice to hire a former White House official who departed after he was caught up in a controversy over the release of intelligence material to a member of Congress, according to people familiar with the matter.
Ezra Cohen-Watnick, who was forced out of the National Security Council last year, will advise Attorney General Jeff Sessions on national security matters.
He left the White House in August for a job at Oracle Corp. following reports that he had shown House Intelligence chairman Devin Nunes classified documents.
The material allegedly revealed that members of the Obama administration had sought the identities of Trump campaign officials and associates inadvertently caught on government intercepts, in a process known as “unmasking.’’ Nunes then disclosed that information publicly in an attempt to bolster Trump’s unsubstantiated allegation that President Barack Obama had wiretapped him.
Cohen-Watnick’s attorney, Mark Zaid, said that reports of his involvement in the Nunes incident were erroneous.
Zaid said that Cohen-Watnick was not fired from the White House.
Bloomberg previously reported that former national security adviser H.R. McMaster had Cohen-Watnick removed from the White House agency. A White House official confirmed Wednesday that he was forced out.
Zaid said that Sessions offered Cohen-Watnick a job in September. Cohen-Watnick neither accepted nor declined the position, Zaid said.
Trump thought Cohen-Watnick had begun working at the Justice Department in the fall, but a confidant told the president during a recent phone call that he had not, according to a person briefed on the call. Trump was displeased, and told staff to make it clear he wanted Cohen-Watnick on the job as soon as possible.
As a matter of policy, the White House generally doesn’t approve the rehiring of staff who are dismissed, aides said. But after it became clear the president wanted Cohen-Watnick on Sessions’ staff, the move was approved.
His rehiring drew criticism from Democrats, who speculated Cohen-Watnick may attempt to interfere in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
bloomberg news
