Stormy Daniels attends court hearing for Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen
ADULT film actress Stormy Daniels arrived at a New York City courthouse on Monday (AM Tuesday AEST) for a hearing about an FBI raid targeting President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.
Daniels, wearing a pink blazer, pink skirt and black heels, stumbled and almost fell on the wet sidewalk outside the courthouse among a throng of reporters and camera crews.
The FBI raid sought information about a variety of matters, including a $130,000 payment made to Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford. She says she had sex with a married Trump in 2006.
Lawyers for Cohen and Trump want to be allowed to decide which items seized from his home and office are protected by lawyer-client privilege before criminal prosecutors see them, but the judge rejected their request.
According to the New York Times, judge Kimba M Wood said she would consider “appointing a special master to assist prosecutors” if and when they go through the siezed documents.
A day before, Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti said his client’s presence at the hearing was “intended to send the message that this is a very, very serious matter for her.”
“She also wants to ensure that she is heard and that she’s represented at the hearing. It has nothing to do with getting in his head at all.”
Cohen arrived at the federal court in Manhattan shortly before Daniels.
Once proceedings got underway, a prosecutor said Cohen isn’t being forthcoming about his law practice.
Assistant US Attorney Tom McKay asked a federal judge to require Michael Cohen to reveal more information about his clients.
Cohen was forced to reveal he had also secretly done legal work for Fox News host Sean Hannity.
It’s a controversial revelation since Hannity has regularly slammed the FBI’s investigation of Cohen on his show without disclosing his relationship with Cohen.
He called the FBI raid on Cohen’s office an “unprecedented abuse of power” and evidence of a “two-tiered justice system.”
Shortly after the revelation, Hannity said it’s no “big deal” that he consulted with Cohen about his own legal affairs.
In his regular broadcast, Hannity said he had “brief discussions” with Cohen about “legal questions where I wanted his input and perspective”. But he said he never retained Cohen “in any traditional sense”, never paid him and never got billed for a legal fee.
In a court filing Monday, Cohen’s lawyers said three people received legal help from Cohen in 2017 and 2018, after Trump became president.
One was Trump himself. Another was Elliot Broidy, a Trump fundraiser who resigned from the Republican National Committee on Friday after it was revealed that he paid $1.6 million to a Playboy Playmate with whom he had an extramarital affair.
The Playmate became pregnant and elected to have an abortion. But they initially declined to reveal the name of the third client.
“It almost goes without saying, unfortunately, that none of Mr. Cohen’s clients want to be associated with the government raid on his home and law office, or want to be affiliated in any way with the proceedings here and the attendant media coverage.”
Wood, though, demanded the name.
“I understand he doesn’t want his name out there, but that’s not enough under the law,” she said.
An email sent to Fox News seeking comment from Hannity was not immediately returned.
The names of Cohen’s clients are an issue because the lawyer has argued that materials seized in an FBI raid on his home and office are subject to attorney-client privilege.
In a filing earlier in the day, Cohen’s lawyers said investigators “took everything” during raids last week on his residence and office. They called the search “completely unprecedented”.
The federal raid, carried out a week ago in New York City, sought bank records, information on Cohen’s dealing in the taxi industry, Cohen’s communications with the Trump campaign and information on payments he made in 2016 to former Playboy model Karen McDougal and to Daniels, both of whom allege relationships with Trump.
The hearing is taking place in federal court in Manhattan.
Lawyers for Cohen wrote in a court filing that investigators seized more than a dozen electronic devices and other items including documents and data unrelated to the probable cause upon which the search warrants were based.
The letter demanded Trump and Cohen’s lawyers be allowed to decide which items seized are protected by lawyer-client privilege before criminal prosecutors see them.
The submission in Manhattan federal court came prior to a hearing scheduled for the afternoon.
Prosecutors say Cohen is being investigated for an undisclosed crime related to his personal business dealings. He has denied wrongdoing.
A lawyer for President Trump filed papers late Sunday asking a federal judge to block prosecutors from studying material seized in the raid until Cohen and the president have a chance to review them and argue which are subject to lawyer-client privilege.
Trump said Sunday that all lawyers are now worried following the FBI raid on Cohen.
“Lawyer Client privilege is now a thing of the past,” he tweeted.
“I have many (too many!) lawyers and they are probably wondering when their offices, and even homes, are going to be raided with everything, including their phones and computers, taken. All lawyers are deflated and concerned!”
A ‘MINEFIELD’ FOR TRUMP
Trump and his allies have hit a new level of anxiety after the raid on his personal attorney’s office, fearful of deeper exposure for Trump, his inner circle and his adult children - and more than concerned that they don’t know exactly what is in those records and electronic devices seized last week.
There is also some worry that Michael Cohen, the self-described legal fixer who helped make bad stories go away and took a leading role in Trump Organization projects in foreign outposts, may strike a deal with prosecutors out of concern about his own prospects.
“I think it’s a huge minefield for Donald Trump and the Trump Organization,” said trial attorney Joseph Cammarata, who represented Paula Jones in her sexual harassment suit against President Bill Clinton.
“I think this is on its own track and this train is coming down the track with brute force.”
As the court hearing unfolds, Trump has headed to Florida for a two-day summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Advisers are hoping the meeting will draw attention from the legal tempest in Washington and New York.
On the trip south, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders sought to put distance between Trump and Cohen, saying: “I believe they’ve still got some ongoing things, but the president has a large number of attorneys, as you know.”
Though Cohen once said he “would take a bullet” for Trump, he is aware of the possible outcome - including potential prison time - and has expressed worry about his family, said a person who has spoken to the lawyer in recent days but is not authorized to discuss private conversations. Cohen has not been charged with anything.
Trump’s moods have grown darker in recent days, as he lashes out at the “overreach” of the raid. Further angering the president is that the raid was triggered in part by a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller, who is looking into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election. The raid was authorised by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Trump has taken to downplaying Cohen’s role. The president also inveighed further against former FBI Director James Comey, who said on Monday morning that Trump was morally unfit to be president. That was a few hours after Comey said the same and worse in a highly promoted ABC interview.
Many in the White House view the aftershocks of the Cohen raid as potentially more threatening than Mueller’s Russia probe, fearful of what skeletons may be in the lawyer’s closets, according to five officials and outside allies who all spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
“I agree with the consensus forming that it’s very dangerous for the president, probably the most serious thing yet,” said Sol Wisenberg, a defense attorney who was a deputy independent counsel during the Starr special counsel investigation into Clinton.
“Even if you shut Mueller down some way, how do you shut down the Southern District (federal court)?”
The president has consistently denied a relationship with Daniels, who claims the two had sex not long after first lady Melania Trump gave birth to the couple’s son Barron. He has also pushed back against other claims from women.
