[Huffpoo] Federal investigators in New York City have conducted surveillance on the phone lines of President Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen, NBC News first reported Thursday.It’s unclear how long ago the wiretapping was authorized, according to NBC News, but sources told the outlet that Cohen was "wiretapped in the weeks leading up to the search warrant that occurred several weeks ago," referring to federal authorities raiding his home, hotel room and office in April. ABC News later confirmed that federal investigators had tapped Cohen’s phones ahead of the raid.
Cohen has been embroiled in a legal battle stemming from a $130,000 "hush money" payment he made to silence Stormy Daniels, the porn star who allegedly had an affair with Trump.
According to NBC, one of the phone calls intercepted was "between the White House and one of the phone lines associated with Michael Cohen."
Trump’s new lawyer overseeing matters in the Russia investigation, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, could not confirm the report, but was "furious" about it, according to The Washington Post’s Robert Costa.
Giuliani told The Daily Beast on Thursday that he and the other lawyers on Trump’s legal team don’t believe Cohen was wiretapped.
"We think it’s going to turn out to be untrue because it would be totally illegal," Giuliani said. "You can’t wiretap a lawyer, you certainly can’t wiretap his client who’s not involved in the investigation. No one has suggested that Trump was involved in that investigation. So they’re going to wiretap the lawyer, his client, and his client, the president of the United States? I don’t think so, not if they want to stay out of jail.
Emphasis added.