by Randy DeSoto
Deputy
attorney general Rod Rosenstein reportedly personally approved the
Monday morning FBI raids on President Donald Trump’s personal attorney
Michael Cohen’s home and offices.
The New York Times reported
that the FBI seized emails, tax documents and records, some of which
are related to Cohen’s $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy
Daniels in the days before the November 2016 presidential election.
According to The Times, a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller proceeded Rosenstein’s decision to green light the raid.
The
Justice Department obtained a search warrant from a federal judge in
New York, which would have required prosecutors to argue the FBI would
likely find evidence of criminal activity. A source told The Times
that the documents identified in the warrant date back years. Trump
took the DOJ to task on Monday night during a meeting at the White House
with his national security team. He noted that Rosenstein approved
a renewal of a FISA warrant, which authorized the FBI to continue
surveil Trump campaign associate Carter Page during the early months of
the new administration in 2017.
Asked by a reporter if
Rosenstein would keep his job, Trump did not respond. However, the
president did voice his frustration with Sessions and Mueller.
“(Sessions) should have certainly let us know if he was going to recuse
himself, and we would have put a different attorney general in,” Trump
said. “So he made what I consider to be a very terrible mistake for the
country, but you’ll figure that out.”
Sessions’ recusal led to Rosenstein taking over Russia investigation, which resulted in his appointment of Mueller as special counsel. The president said the Mueller investigation is “an attack on our country in a true sense. It’s an attack on what we all stand for” and called Mueller’s actions against Cohen “a disgrace.”
RELATED: Former Board Member Dershowitz Hammers ACLU for Support of Trump Attorney Raid
Attorney–client privilege is dead!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 10, 2018
Asked whether he will fire Mueller, the president replied, “We’ll see what happens,” and, “Many people have said you should fire him.”