The US President has angrily declared that the federal agency “broke into” the office of his personal attorney Michael Cohen this week, tweeting “Attorney-client privilege is dead!”
Mr Cohen is reportedly being investigated over possible bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign finance violations.
The raid followed a referral from special counsel, Robert Mueller, who is looking into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to help him win the 2016 election, and saw a number of records seized including communications regarding a $130,000 ‘hush’ payment made to actress Stormy Daniels by Cohen to allegedly keep quiet about an affair with Trump.
Trump has tweeted the investigation is a “total witch hunt”. But considering Mueller has so far produced 19 indictments or guilty pleas, it seems any evidence the FBI has is likely to be compelling.
The President also seems to be unaware that if a client is using a lawyer’s service to commit crime or fraud, attorney-client privilege doesn’t apply.
Perhaps that’s why one former White House official quoted about this latest development had this to say: “Jesus take the wheel”.
Someone has to.
