trump s foundation, the controversial foundation which trump has been repeatedly criticized for using as a personal piggy bank and for overstating his donations to. so what we re looking at here is another aspect of trump s behavior that is being examined by mueller. mueller now has the documents on this. it was in response to this subpoena that went to the trump organization. and it s just part of a larger look at flows of money that went into where were these monies going? was there money being sent towards the campaign? was there money sent to the foundation or to trump org itself? and these are issues that mueller is focusing on. this comes back to ou russia centric. he s basically outsourced whatever shady dealings mr. cohen was involved in. spae speak to the significance of the new york times reporting
day 145 of the trump administration brings a bombshell that one trump confident concedes was a true cause for alarm for the president. donald trump s personal lawyer and fixer, the man who paid porn star stormy daniels $130,000 in hush money. the new york times broke the story late this afternoon. the washington soon followed. they both report that some of the materials seized in that raid is related to the payment to stormy daniels, but also that documents related to other topics as well as communications between cohen and his clients were taken. the washington post reports that cohen s computer, his phone, and personal financial records were confiscated in the search of his law office and that he s, quote, under federal investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud, and campaign finance violations according to
uncover once they begin following decades of trump transportations in foreign countries. the justice department has authority to prosecute a crime under a statute called the federal corrupt practices act, and that involves business practices in some countries where bribery is a way of life. it s illegal for united states companies to engage in that. there s been speculation over time that trump organizations abroad could have been involved in that, that there could be money laundering. we don t really know where that goes. but an interesting opportunity for mueller here is whether or not michael cohen will begin to feel some pressure and whether or not he might conclude a plea deal with prosecutors in the southern district of new york that would give him a lighter sentence or lesser charges in exchange for cooperation with
are laughing now. the fbi just raided the personal attorney for the president s offices over the exact matter that we have brought to the forefront and brought to the attention of the american people. i don t think michael cohen s laughing tonight. i don t think the president s laughing tonight. we know the president s not laughing, joyce. your thoughts. so it s very interesting how avenatti has managed to keep this story at the forefront, and now today we have a little bit of information that perhaps this story really does belong at the forefront. one thing that we know from reporting is that the reason cohen s offices were raided was that investigators were looking for evidence of campaign finance violations, of bank fraud, and of wire fraud. and we also know that this bank transaction where money was transferred from cohen to storyd daniels then lawyer davidson, that that transaction was also flagged by the bank.
pleading guilty for things that actually have nothing to do with either collusion with russia or obstruction of justice. and so michael cohen has the sort of background and, again, some of this is by his own proud admission. this is what he proudly did for the president. he said i would take a bullet for the president or his family. that once you start looking into it, it s not going to be pretty, and it could entrap and turn over other people and other dealings with the trump organization, with the president s family that the president doesn t want to see the light of day and just might make him angry enough to disregard the advice of his lawyers, to disregard the advice of others in the west wing, and maybe set one of these firing dominoes in motion. joyce, you and i have talked a lot about michael avenatti. he was on the last word tonight. let s listen to that. when we filed this case about four or five weeks ago, you know, a lot of people mocked us. a lot of people mocked my