The Washington Post reveals Trump allies are worried the FBI may have collected audio recordings when it raided Michael Cohen's office, home, and hotel room on Monday.
While Special Counsel Robert Mueller referred information to the FBI, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York - not his team - executed the search warrants, and news reports indicate New York prosecutors are looking at possible evidence connected to the Stormy Daniels case, ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal, "potential sources of negative publicity' in the lead-up to the 2016 election," and other matters not directly related to the Russia investigation.
However, Cohen may have recorded conversations pertaining to 2016 campaign matters.
Cohen, who served for a decade as a lawyer at the Trump Organization and is a close confidant of Trump, was known to store the conversations using digital files and then replay them for colleagues ...
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It is unknown whether Cohen taped conversations between himself and Trump. But two people familiar with Cohen’s practices said he recorded both business and political conversations. One associate said Trump knew of Cohen’s practice because the attorney would often play him recordings Cohen had made of his conversations with other top Trump advisers.
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Federal investigators would not automatically get access to any tapes that might have been seized in the raids. First, the recordings would be reviewed by a separate Justice Department team and possibly by a federal judge. The review is designed to protect lawyer-client privilege and to be sure that the conversations turned over are within the terms of the search warrant, legal experts said.
They noted that the privilege accorded to attorney-client communications does not apply if the conversation was conducted to further commission of a crime or fraud.
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During the 2016 race, Cohen — who did not have a formal role on the campaign — had a reputation among campaign staff as someone to avoid, in part because he was believed to be secretly taping conversations.
In one instance, Cohen played a recording of a conversation he had with someone else to a Trump campaign official to demonstrate that he was in a position to challenge that person’s veracity if necessary, an associate recalled.
Cohen indicated that he had something to use against the person he had taped, the associate said.
One outside Trump adviser said Cohen may have begun recording his conversations in an attempt to emulate his boss, who has long boasted — often with no evidence — about secretly taping private conversations.
Trump’s allies worry that federal investigators may have seized recordings made by his attorney (WaPo)