Why FBI raided offices of Trump’s personal lawyer

Washington, United States | AFP | A furious Donald Trump blasted the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller as a “disgrace” and a “witch hunt” Monday after FBI agents raided the New York offices of the president’s longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen.

Agents seized files relating to Cohen’s work, which included making a $130,000 payment before the 2016 election to an adult film actress who says she had a tryst with the Trump a decade earlier.

Cohen’s own attorney Stephen Ryan said agents were working in part on the request of Mueller, the independent prosecutor investigating links between Russia and the Trump campaign.

At the White House, Trump angrily denounced the raid on “good man” Cohen.

“It’s a disgraceful situation. It’s a total witch-hunt, I have been saying it for a long time,” he told reporters.

“It’s an attack on our country in a true sense. It’s an attack on what we all stand for.”

The raid came as Mueller’s probe intensifies its focus on Trump’s inner circle.

Mueller’s team is examining possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Moscow, as well as allegations of corrupt behavior by Trump campaign lieutenants and of White House efforts to obstruct the investigation.

So far, 19 people have been indicted, including the chairman of Trump’s campaign and his former national security advisor.

Trump accused Mueller of overseeing a biased investigation staffed by Democrats, “a pure and simple witch-hunt.”

But the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, said it was a Trump-appointed prosecutor who had sought the search warrant, which was in turn approved by a judge.

“That’s no witch hunt. That’s the rule of law,” Schiff tweeted.

“As Trump floats firing Mueller, all Members must speak out — or stop feigning devotion to the Constitution.”

The special counsel is also probing a $150,000 payment Ukrainian billionaire steel magnate Victor Pinchuk made during the US presidential campaign to Trump’s foundation for the American real estate developer to give a 20-minute speech via video link, according to The New York Times.

– Mueller in firing line? –

After having turned over what he called a million pages of documents, Trump said the investigation is “now getting ridiculous. They found no collusion whatsoever with Russia.”

“This is the most biased group of people, these people have the biggest conflicts of interest I’ve ever seen. Democrats all, or just about all,” the president added.

Asked if he wants to fire Mueller, Trump replied: “Many people have said you should fire him. Again they found nothing and in finding nothing that’s a big statement,” he said. “So we’ll see what happens.”

The veteran prosecutor, a former FBI director, is seeking to interview Trump, but has not said the president is a target in the investigation.

The raid on Cohen though takes the probe close to the Oval Office. Cohen has been Trump’s personal lawyer and confidant for years, helping him on real estate and personal matters, as well as informally advising him since he became president.

He is also known as a rough-and-tumble “fixer” for Trump, dedicated to protecting his boss’s interests.