Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara joined CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Tuesday night and said that he believes it is highly likely that Michael Cohen ends up getting charged. Bharara worked in the Southern District of New York (SDNY), the very office that worked with the FBI on the raid of Cohen’s office.
Bharara said that his experience working as a U.S. attorney in the SDNY tells him that there would have to be some serious proof of probable cause for someone to have approved this search in the first place, given the seriousness of such a search.
“From time to time you get search warrants to look at lawyers’ offices,” he said. “It’s a big deal and the regulations that say it requires a personal approval of the United States attorney and consultation with folks in Washington.”
“If I were still the United States Attorney no matter who the president was and I was being asked to personally approve as someone had to in the Southern District of New York, a search of someone’s home and office who was counsel to the president, I would want a lot more than the bare minimum proof of probable cause,” Bharara added.
Believing that the proof of probable cause is not bare minimum, Bharara predicted that the Michael Cohen will very likely be charged.
“I predict, as we saw with Paul Manafort, if they decided they have enough evidence to engage in an aggressive move, that the likelihood that Michael Cohen will be charged is high,” he concluded.
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