Report: Cohen To Cooperate with Prosecutors After Lawyers Leave His Case
Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, will reportedly cooperate with federal prosecutors in New York after his lawyers are expected to leave his case.
Stephen Ryan and Todd Harrison of McDermott, Will & Emery LLP had represented Cohen, but an unnamed source told ABC News that the lawyers are not planning on representing Cohen going forward in the criminal investigation into his business dealings. Replacement counsel has not been identified at this time.
Even though ABC News reported that Cohen will now cooperate with the federal prosecutors, sources told the Wall Street Journal that Trump’s former attorney still hasn’t made up his mind on cooperating with the authorities on the case without his representation.
Cohen has been under federal investigation for months for possible bank fraud, wire fraud, and campaign finance violations, The Washington Post reported.
On April 9, Manhattan federal prosecutors obtained a search warrant to raid Cohen’s office thanks to a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
According to The New York Times, the raid, which was carried out Monday, is not related to the Russia investigation.
Rather, it apparently has to do with a $130,000 payment made by Cohen to Stormy Daniels, a pornographic film star who claims that more than a decade ago, she had an affair with Trump.
Cohen allegedly made the payment so that Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, wouldn’t go public with her claims during the presidential election.
One of Cohen’s lawyer’s, Ryan, called the raid “completely inappropriate and unnecessary.”
“It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney-client communications between a lawyer and his clients. These government tactics are also wrong because Mr. Cohen has cooperated completely with all government entities, including providing thousands of non-privileged documents to the Congress and sitting for depositions under oath,” Ryan said, according to Vanity Fair.
The bureau “also seized emails, tax documents and business records,” the outlet continued.
“I just want my stuff back,” Cohen said to ABC News following the raids.
Trump also responded to the raids on Twitter.
Cohen’s lawyers have until Friday to review the 3.7 million documents seized in the raid and determine if there were any documents that violate attorney-client privilege, the Washington Examiner reported.
Judge Kimba Wood appointed former federal judge Barbara Jones to be an impartial special master to help with the process of reviewing the documents and what will be off-limits to federal prosecutors.
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