Feds Are Treating Michael Cohen Like a Mob Lawyer, Trump Allies Say

[babylonsister]

Feds Are Treating Michael Cohen Like a Mob Lawyer, Trump Allies Say
Lawyers don’t usually get their offices raided—unless they’re (allegedly) in on the crime, too.
Betsy Woodruff
Asawin Suebsaeng
04.09.18 10:02 PM ET

snip//

“It’s a tactic generally used against organized crime, against very serious, very serious criminals and lawyers who are operating outside of the protections of the law,” said Alan Dershowitz, a liberal attorney and frequent critic of Mueller’s tactics.

Because of attorney-client privilege, communications between lawyers and their clients are almost always protected from investigators’ prying eyes. Almost. The exception is when investigators convince a federal judge they have probable cause that the lawyer is involved in a crime. When that happens and a search warrant is executed—as happened today—then a team of attorneys who aren’t working on the prosecution go through the communications first with an eye to protecting privileged communications that aren’t evidence of crime.

“The only excuse for raiding a lawyer’s office is if the lawyer is potentially involved in crime—if there’s probable cause to believe that the attorney is either involved in crime or his services are being used for that,” said Sol Wisenberg, a white collar defense attorney at Nelson Mullins and former federal prosecutor.

David Rivkin, formerly an official at the Justice Department during the Reagan administration, said this kind of raid means federal prosecutors must believe Cohen is “involved in some ongoing criminal offense.”
“It is remarkably unusual,” he added.

Unusual, but not completely unheard of: These kinds of raids happen when lawyers are suspected of involvement in organized, complex criminal schemes. In 2014, for instance, law enforcement officials raided a law firm in Florida whose attorneys allegedly preyed on homeowners by conning them into joining lawsuits against big banks, according to HuffPost. And in 2013, officials raided a law firm with strong union ties that faced accusations of harassing public officials, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“This is precisely the sort of development a complex investigation can have,” said Josh Geltzer, formerly an attorney in the Justice Department’s National Security Division, “and that it would deeply infringe on the integrity of law enforcement in this country if the president were to respond by firing DOJ leadership or the special counsel himself.”

more...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/feds-are-treating-michael-cohen-like-a-mob-lawyer-trump-allies-say?ref=home

[honest.abe]

1. Exactly.. because he is.

[dalton99a]

2. We're witnessing the takedown of the Trump crime family

[HopeAgain]

3. Yes, and?

Plus, Dershowitz is NOT a liberal lawyer. That is a smear on liberals.

[babylonsister]

4. I didn't read it that way. I read

Dershowitz thinks dt is in deep shit!

[HopeAgain]

7. I'm sorry, I wasn't clear

I agree totally with the article, and think of Cohen as actually being a mob lawyer. Except for the characterization of Dershowitz as a liberal, that bothers me.

[babylonsister]

8. Thanks. I completely missed

that and agree with you. He surely is NOT a liberal!

[dalton99a]

5. Good catch - Dershowitz is a fascist POS

[whathehell]

6. I'm shocked, shocked I tell ya

[njhoneybadger]

9. He is a mobster lawyer working for a mobster laundering Russian mobster money

Cohen is a thug and I would bet he is behind the threat Stormy talked about on 69 minutes

[Pachamama]

12. +1000

Exactly

[duforsure]

10. Because he's acting like a mob lawyer

And if he's not guilty, like Hillary has been found numerous times to be despite trumps repeated attempts to criminalize her like Putin does in Russia, and now wants to claim this is other than a legal warrant being carried out shows his contempt for the rule of law, and how anyone in law enforcement could support someone who has no respect for it is amazing. They had Rosenstein, and a US attorney trump has backed for this position, and a trump Federal judge all sign off on this legal operation, so his calling it anything else is another attempt to con people with. Mueller turned it over to Rosenstein after deciding it was not in his mandate, so he did nothing wrong, but if trump now either fires him, or the US attorney it'll be another obstruction charge, and that will stick. Witch hunts are what trumps doing to Hillary , and maybe for Putin.

[beachbum bob]

11. taking payoffs and giving payoffs pretty much are crimes...so Cohen is neck deep in trump's shit

and its wonderful to watch

follow the fucking money

[DarthDem]

13. Right On, Allies!

Good catch. Can't get anything past those folks!

PS, a federal judge signed off on the warrant. Law enforcement didn't just do this on its own.