FBI has Michael Cohen on tape in Stormy Daniels scandal
Could Michael Cohen’s week somehow manage to get any worse? It just did. On Monday the FBI raided his office and residence and seized his communications with Donald Trump and others. Earlier today it was reported that Robert Mueller has evidence Cohen really was in Prague in 2016, as the Trump-Russia dossier has long alleged. Now it turns out the FBI has Cohen on tape in the Stormy Daniels scandal.
The person who taped Michael Cohen in the scandal: Michael Cohen himself. He reportedly recorded his conversations with the attorneys for Daniels, and at least one attorney representing a woman who had an affair with Trump, according to CNN. The legality of secretly recording phone conversations depends on the state in which the unaware person was located at the time, so we don’t yet know whether or not Cohen violated the law simply by recording the conversations. But that may not matter, because now we know that the Feds have the content of the phone calls.
Cohen is known for his brash and hostile interactions with people he doesn’t like, and he’s also known as Donald Trump’s “fixer” when it comes to various scandals. The question now is whether or not Cohen said anything on these phone calls that was illegal. For example, if Cohen hypothetically threatened the safety of the women, or if he made financial arrangements that were in violation of federal election law, that would be a crime. If Cohen conducted himself within the law during these phone calls, that would not be a crime.
Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti, who was apparently one of the people secretly recorded by Michael Cohen, tweeted this in response: “If this is true, let me be clear. I will bring the weight of the world down upon Mr. Cohen, together with any other party that violated my client’s rights or conspired against her.” He then called Cohen a “thug.”
