Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara predicted Tuesday there’s a “high” likelihood that President Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, will be charged with a crime.
Bharara told told CNN’s Anderson Cooper’s Anderson Cooper that law enforcement officials would have needed to present “a lot more than the bare minimum proof of probable cause” to obtain a search warrant to raid Michael Cohen’s home and office.
“So I predict, as we saw with Paul Manafort, that if they decided they had enough evidence to engage in a very aggressive, a very aggressive move, that the likelihood that Michael Cohen is going to be charged is high,” Bharara said.
{mosads} Bharara said it was “really weird” to have the office of a sitting president’s lawyer raided.
“It’s a big deal,” Bharara said, and therefore would have required substantial evidence to get a U.S. attorney to sign off on it.
Bharara was fired by Trump last year when he refused to resign from his post as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York — the same office that needed to sign off on Monday’s raid.
Bharara’s successor, Geoffrey Berman, was appointed by Trump but reportedly recused himself from the investigation. Berman donated to Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Trump blasted the raid on Tuesday as a “disgrace” and said it killed attorney-client privilege.
The FBI was reportedly looking for documents related to two women, Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, who claimed to have affairs with Trump.
Cohen admitted to paying Daniels $130,000 days before the 2016 election. Daniels says the payment was “hush money” intended to keep her quiet about the relationship. Cohen says the money came from his own pocket.
Cohen has denied any wrongdoing but said the FBI officials were very “courteous” and “extremely professional” during the raid.