What do you know? Trump managed to screw himself again. In a scandalous turn of events, the search warrant issued for Michael Cohen, Trump’s former “fixer,” actually unveiled the fact that prosecutors were able to gain access to Cohen’s Gmail accounts thanks to a recent law passed by none other than Donald Trump himself.
Back in February of 2018, Southern District of New York investigators petitioned for access to all of Cohen’s Google accounts. However, they were quickly shot down under the justification that the data was currently being stored overseas — which up until recently meant that investigators didn’t have a legal way to get their hands on it.
That was until POTUS signed the CLOUD Act — a new law that allows federal law enforcement agencies to issue warrants or subpoenas for data that is stored on servers regardless of whether it is on US or foreign soil. Trump signed the Act to settle an ongoing dispute between the DoJ and Microsoft, despite rising concerns from privacy experts. But it looks like Trump’s desire to be the hero is biting him in the ass.
While SDNY’s request for data was previously denied on the premise of the information being stored overseas, the CLOUD Act has given them another chance and they’re not about to waste it. Investigators hastily headed back to the courts to request the data again, this time asking for a new warrant to search Cohen’s Google account under the new law — arguing in an FBI affidavit that, “providers are required to disclose data even if it is stored abroad.”
CNN then reported that “The judge approved the new search warrant later that day, giving investigators access to additional information from Google, including Cohen’s emails, attachments, address book and files stored on Google Drive.”
So, not only will Cohen be looking at even more legal trouble once everything’s been sifted through, Trump may have very well just implicated himself with his own damn law. And it just doesn’t get much better than that.
Featured image via DC Tribune gallery
