President Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen’s phones were tapped weeks before federal investigators executed a search warrant on his office.
According to several reports, Cohen, who rose to national infamy after making a reported $130,000 payment to prevent porn actress Stormy Daniels from giving the details surrounding her alleged affair with Trump, had phones in his offices, hotel room and his home tapped in early April, NBC News reports.
At least one phone call between someone associated with Cohen and the White House was intercepted. NBC News reports that after the raid on Cohen, members of Trump’s legal team told the president not to talk with Cohen.
“Two sources close to Trump’s newest attorney, Rudolph Giuliani, say he learned that days after the raid the president had made a call to Cohen, and told Trump never to call again out of concern the call was being recorded by prosecutors,” NBC News reports.
Sources told the news network that Giuliani told Trump to expect Cohen to flip, but Trump pushed back, noting that he’s known Cohen for years and expects him to remain loyal.
Giuliani and a lawyer for Cohen, Steve Ryan, did not respond to a request for comment. The White House referred NBC News to outside counsel.