President Trump is furious that the FBI raided the offices of his personal lawyer Michael Cohen.
“Attorney-client privilege is dead!” Trump said on Twitter on Tuesday.
In another tweet, Trump called the raid “A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!”
Trump’s got a point on the attorney-client privilege. Under the U.S. Constitution, communications between clients and their lawyers are almost always beyond the reach of law enforcement, Business Insider reported.
Business Insider on Monday reported that such a raid would have a high burden for approval, with authorities needing to convince a judge that less intrusive measures had no chance of success. The exact reason for the raid was unclear, but reports Monday indicated that the matter was referred to the FBI by Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading the Russia investigation.
A former federal prosecutor, Ken White, in a blog for Reason, wrote: “That’s a very fraught and extraordinary move that requires multiple levels of authorization within the Department of Justice” and an “elaborate review process.”
In the raid, the FBI reportedly collected records related to Cohen’s $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 presidential election, The New York Times reported Monday.
Former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee ripped the raid, musing about whether the American Civil Liberties Union will seek to protect the Constitution.