The consensus seems to be this is a very big deal.  Getting Rosenstein and a federal judge to sign off of a raid not just of "a lawyers" office but the office of the personal attorney of the POTUS.  Which never happened before not even to Nixon.

It's said this is definitely not just about a possible campaign finance violation but something or things much more serious.

This comprehensive peace agreement, which was brokered by former Sen. George Mitchell in his capacity as President Bill Clinton's personal emissary, effectively ended the 30 years of bloody civil / sectarian strife in Northern Ireland known as "The Troubles," brought about the voluntary disarmament of both the Irish Republican Army and its equally militant counterpart the Ulster Volunteer Force, and paved the way for a new era of better relations and understanding between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom.

I only mention this because the pursuit of peace is normally something that good presidents want to do.

Try to understand how high up the chain this all had to go for approval, and ask yourself if this would have been done just for some payoff to an adult film actress.

You don't get warrants like this because you want to fish around and put on a show.

thomas rogan: "A lawyer has an unpopular client.  The government finds some sort of alleged crime which is not very large in the grand scheme of things (such as question of 130000 bank fraud) and uses it to get a warrant to get all of the lawyer's records and threaten the lawyer with indictments. Instead of waiting until the client's case or even indictment is settled the government preemptively goes after the lawyer. No one here at a site originally devoted to representing Oklahoma City bombers and the like finds this the least bit disturbing. Oh well."

... yesterday's FBI raid on Michael Cohen's home and offices has much if anything to do with Robert Mueller's current investigation into the Trump-Russia scandal, which is why he handed it off to Geoffrey Berman, who's the acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

By and large, judges tend to take a rather dim view of any prosecutorial attempts to accomplish an end run around the long-established rights of both clients and their attorneys to enjoy privileged communications with one another.

So, for a federal judge to sign off on an FBI warrant to search an attorney's domestic and professional abodes, prosecutors would first have to make a compelling case to that judge that the attorney in question, in this case Michael Cohen, has likely committed or is likely presently engaged in serious criminal conduct.

I would further venture that the judge would probably set that bar of evidence even higher for prosecutors with regard to Cohen, given his longtime status as President Trump's personal attorney and advisor. So, whatever it was that Mueller uncovered about Cohen and handed off to Berman, a Trump appointee, it appears to have been serious enough to have prompted Berman's office to act swiftly and decisively.

Therefore, and with the admission that I'm likewise engaged in personal speculation, I believe that yesterday's events probably have much more to do with Michael Cohen's own personal conduct and suspect dealings outside of the Trumpian realm, than with any matters regarding his personal and professional relationship with Donald Trump himself.

I think the govt is looking for the source of the funds he used to make settlement payments, if not from Trump, and it appears so far it was not, then from who? If he used his line of credit on his home, has he paid it back? How?

He said he "facilitated" the payment.  Which could mean anything.

He sai that Trump never reimbursed him.  He did not say someone else, like a Russian oligarch, did not reimburse him.

From what I hear there is a lot more to this than a simple campaign finance violation.

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has developed a procedure to protect unrelated and privileged information from being reviewed after electronic records are obtained. The DOJ appoints prosecutors and/or agents who are not otherwise assigned to the case under investigation and directs them to review all the electronic records first and identify the portions of those records that their colleagues who are handling the case should not see. These groups of reviewing prosecutors and agents are referred to as "taint teams" because their purpose is to shield the government from a defense motion to suppress electronic record evidence based on an argument that the prosecution and investigating team was "tainted" by viewing electronic records it had no right to see. See United States Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, Searching and Seizing Computers and Obtaining Electronic Evidence in Criminal Investigations, § 2(B)(7) (July 2002).  

Is it perfect?  Of course not - and you can bet arguments will be made of prejudice and violation of privilege - but I suspect the SDNY and the FBI had their ducks in a row for some time before the raid actually occurred.

And I hate to tell you this, but if a client is engaging an attorney for the purpose of either committing a crime or otherwise being involved in a crime, it isn't privileged.  I suspect Michael Cohen - and Trump - may have some exposure there.

motions to suppress by Trumps lawyers

They would have to call Paul Manafort's lawyers to find out what that even is.

Inquiring minds would like to know!

So Huckelberry Sanders Floated the balloon of firing Mueller today