Feds Tapped Cohen's Phones Tracked Cohen's Calls

Tom Winter and Julia Ainsley at NBC News report:
Federal investigators have wiretapped the phone lines of Michael Cohen, the longtime personal lawyer for [Donald] Trump who is under investigation for a payment he made to [Stormy Daniels], who alleged she had an affair with Trump, according to two people with knowledge of the legal proceedings involving Cohen.

It is not clear how long the wiretap has been authorized, but NBC News has learned it was in place in the weeks leading up to the raids on Cohen's offices, hotel room, and home in early April, according to one person with direct knowledge.
[UPDATE: NBC News now says it wasn't a wiretap, but a pen register: "The correction was announced on MSNBC during Meet the Press Daily by the story's lead reporter, Tom Winter. He said US officials had told him that it 'was not a wiretap' but instead a 'pen register,' meaning that Cohen's calls were not being listened to. 'In plain English, that means it was a log of phone calls that were made from specific phone line — from a specific phone line or specific phone lines,' Winter said."]

So, the evening before this news leaked, and the public was about to find out that federal law enforcement had been listening in on had a "pen register" to track Cohen's dirty dealings before his files were seized, Rudy Giuliani goes on Fox News and spills to Sean Hannity a completely new story about Cohen's payment to Daniels, as well as Trump's reimbursement of said payment.

As far as I'm concerned, this gives more credence to my contention that Giuliani's performance was part of a strategy.

Further, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman — who uses her position at the Times to constantly communicate to the public that the administration is in crisis and/or chaos, in service to the administration — is back at it, which further convinces me that there's a strategy at work:


Anyway. One hopes all of this will matter someday! That would be terrific.

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