Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, is searching for a new legal team to represent him in an FBI investigation of his business dealings.

A person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Cohen’s current legal team plans to stop handling the case and that Cohen has begun a hunt for new attorneys.

It wasn’t immediately clear what prompted the change or who would take over. The person, who wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity, also noted that Cohen has not yet held any discussions with prosecutors about potentially cooperating in the investigation.

Cohen has been represented since 2017 by Stephen Ryan, a Washington lawyer initially hired to prepare him for congressional testimony about alleged Russian interference in the presidential election.

After FBI agents raided Cohen’s office in April, Ryan and his New York partner, Todd Harrison, went to court to try to keep investigators from seeing some of the confiscated files on the grounds that they were protected by attorney client privilege. The pair, along with lawyers for Trump, has been working for weeks to identify documents that should be withheld from prosecutors.

The legal teams were facing a deadline of the end of this week to get much of that work complete.

Neither Cohen, Ryan nor Harrison immediately responded to messages Wednesday.

Federal prosecutors in New York have publicly said they are investigating alleged fraud in Cohen’s business dealings, but haven’t disclosed details.

When agents searched Cohen’s home, office and safety deposit box and seized his phones this spring, they sought a wide variety of information, including his involvement in arranging a secret $130,000 payment to the porn actress Stormy Daniels, who said she had a sexual tryst with Trump years ago.

Cohen has maintained that he’s innocent of wrongdoing, and Trump has called the raid on his lawyer an assault on attorney client privilege.

The news that Cohen was making a switch in his legal representation was first reported by ABC News.

It isn’t unusual for high-profile figures facing potential criminal charges to look for attorneys who have deep experience in the court where the case is expected to be tried, and a track record of negotiating with local prosecutors.

Daniels’ lawyer, Michael Avenatti, who is suing him in an attempt to get the actress released from a confidentiality agreement, gloated over the news in a tweet.

“Not a good look and a disaster for Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump,” he said.
…

your ad here

Hurricane Bud made a brief run as a powerful Category 4 storm off Mexico’s Pacific coast, but quickly weakened into a tropical storm by Wednesday morning, easing — but not completely ending — the threat to resorts in its path at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Bud’s maximum sustained winds had lessened to 65 mph (100 kph), down from 130 mph (210 kph) the day before. It was projected to weaken further, but it was still expected to be at tropical storm force when it reaches the Baja peninsula late Thursday.

A tropical storm warning was issued for a stretch of coastline from Santa Fe to La Paz that includes the twin resort cities of Los Cabos.

Bud was centered about 250 miles (405 kilometers) south-southeast of Cabo San Lucas at the peninsula’s southern tip and was moving north-northwest at about 3 mph (6 kph).

The forecast path would carry it near Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo, which are popular destinations for international and domestic travelers with millions of visitors each year.

The center said the hurricane could cause dangerous surf along Mexico’s nearby coasts for the next several days. Heavy rainfall also was predicted for southwestern and western Mexico as well as the southern Baja peninsula.

The Los Cabos Tourism Board said in a statement that it did not anticipate significant damage from the storm and that airline and transportation operations were operating normally, though aviation delays were expected.

It urged people to “exercise caution and vigilance” and “refrain from participating in any sort of recreational water activity until further word from the Mexican National Civil Protection System.”
…

your ad here

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling has cleared the way for states to take a tougher approach to maintaining their voter rolls, but will they?

Ohio plans to resume its process for removing inactive voters after it was affirmed in Monday’s 5-4 ruling. It takes a particularly aggressive approach that appears to be an outlier among states.

Few appear eager to follow.

“Our law has been on the books. It hasn’t changed, and it isn’t changing,” said Oklahoma Election Board spokesman Bryan Dean.

At issue is when a state begins the process to notify and ultimately remove people from the rolls after a period of non-voting. In most states with similar laws, like Oklahoma, that process begins after voters miss two or more federal elections.

In Ohio, it starts if voters sit out a two-year period that includes just one federal election. They are removed from the rolls if they fail to vote over the following four years or do not return an address-confirmation card.

Opponents of the laws say their intent is to purge people from the rolls, particularly minorities and the poor who tend to vote Democratic. Supporters say voters are given plenty of chances to keep their active status and that the rules adhere to federal law requiring states to maintain accurate voter rolls.

Democrats and voting rights groups have expressed concern that other states will be emboldened by the ruling and adopt more aggressive tactics to kick voters off the rolls. In addition to Oklahoma, Georgia, Montana, Oregon, Pennsylvania and West Virginia have laws similar to Ohio’s.

But even Republican-led states where officials are concerned about voter fraud may be wary when it comes to following the Ohio model.

One hurdle is likely to come from local governments, where election administrators would have to deal with disgruntled voters and manage an increase in the number of people placed on inactive voter lists, said Myrna Perez, who has studied voter list practices in her role as deputy director of the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program.

“Using one election as an indicator is going to lead to a whole lot of false positives,” she said. “There are plenty of states that clean their voter rolls successfully without being as aggressive as Ohio.”

West Virginia is more lenient in targeting inactive voters than Ohio. Among other things, it requires counties in the year following a presidential election to mail an address confirmation to people who have not voted in any election during the previous four years.

Julie Archer of the watchdog West Virginia Citizen Action Group said the process appears to be working as it should.

“There is not a need to do something more aggressive,” she said.

‘Massive statewide purge’

The controversy over Ohio’s approach arose from apparently conflicting mandates in the National Voter Registration Act, which became law in 1993. It requires states to maintain accurate voter registration lists but also says they should protect against inadvertently removing properly registered voters.

Since 1994, Ohio has used voters’ inactivity after two years — encompassing one federal election cycle — to trigger a process that could lead to removal from the voter rolls. That process has been used under both Democratic and Republican secretaries of state, but groups representing voters did not sue until 2016, under current Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted.

The legal action followed what the lawsuit called “a massive statewide purge” of voters in the summer of 2015.

In Pennsylvania, the process isn’t triggered unless people have failed to vote for five years, or two general election cycles. The state has no plans to change that, Department of State spokeswoman Wanda Murren said.

The existing system hasn’t been drawing complaints, said Ray Murphy, a spokesman for Keystone Votes, a liberal coalition that advocates for changes to Pennsylvania election law. But he said the group will watch the Legislature closely for any signs that lawmakers will want to follow Ohio’s more stringent method.

Ballot access is a frequent battleground for Democrats and Republicans, but it’s not always a neatly partisan issue.

In Oregon, for example, Republican Secretary of State Dennis Richardson last year expanded the period for removing people from the rolls from five years of non-voting to 10 years.

“A registered voter should not lose their voting rights solely because they haven’t participated recently,” he said in a written statement following Monday’s Supreme Court ruling.
…

your ad here

If the football federations follow FIFA’s guidance, the 2026 World Cup should be awarded to the North American bid on Wednesday.

Success for Morocco relies on the electorate to follow the trend of recent hosting decisions and vote for a risky bid facing doubts about the ability to pull off the vast reconstruction project required to stage soccer’s showpiece.

The 16 stadiums proposed by the joint United States-Canada-Mexico bid already exist and only need minor upgrades over eight years.

All 14 Moroccan venues must be built or renovated as part of the $16 billion investment in new infrastructure the African nation says is required.

FIFA’s inspection reports highlighted three “high-risk” elements to Morocco’s bid: stadiums, hotels and transport.

When FIFA President Gianni Infantino last week urged the more than 200 voting federations to “look at the report,” it seemed a clear signal of the governing body’s preference for security and stability offered them in North America.

A consequence of concerns expressed about the 2010 contest that resulted in hosting rights awarded to Russia for 2018 and to Qatar for 2022 was a more rigorous bidding process that required candidates to produce human rights strategies.

Morocco’s bid was singled out for “unexplored risks” in evaluations of those strategies that were produced by the BSR organization for FIFA.

In the evaluation, BSR said the Moroccan bid documents “lack consideration of topics highlighted as potential human rights risks in key international documents covering mega sporting events.”

BSR expressed apprehension about “discrimination against LGBTQ,” a reference the Moroccan law that criminalizes homosexuality. 

Qatar’s World Cup preparations have been dogged by concerns about working conditions on stadiums, which could make voting members nervous considering a Moroccan victory would require years of extensive building work on stadium or training facilities.

An “assessment of risks associated with working conditions is insufficiently developed,” BSR said, “and does not provide detailed information on risks associated specifically with health and safety, working hours, wage, and the prevalence of informal economy in the country.”

Morocco’s bid proposes completing a 93,000-capacity Grand Stade de Casablanca one year before the World Cup kicks off. Several of its 14 venues would meet the World Cup minimum 40,000-capacity, then be scaled back to 25,000 after the tournament. In a pitch to voters in Moscow this week justifying the vast infrastructure required, Morocco tourism minister Lamia Boutaleb talked of needing to create jobs in her country “to reach the next level.”

The joint bid from North America offers a choice from 23 stadiums including three each in Canada and Mexico, which are each scheduled to host 10 games. The United States would stage 60 games, and the 87,000-capacity MetLife Stadium near New York is proposed for the final.

Here’s a closer look at the bids:

Money

The big numbers for projected budgets, revenues and profits used in World Cup and Olympic bidding are best treated with caution. 

FIFA foresaw at least $1.76 billion from North American estimates of selling 5 million match tickets. However, that would have to cover $390 million in expected stadium rental fees. Hospitality sales are predicted at $1.3 billion.

Morocco’s combined tickets and hospitality revenue would be $1.07 billion, according to FIFA analysis. Free use of stadiums is promised.

Morocco topped only one of the nine categories scored by FIFA — offering lower tournament running costs due to planning for 14 stadiums in only 12 cities compared with a 16-stadium, 16-city project in three countries. 

On broadcast rights income for FIFA, Morocco stresses its sweet spot in a time zone that’s good for European and African viewers. 

Picking the North Americans would earn FIFA $300 million in bonuses from broadcasters, including Fox and Telemundo, who already secured 2026 rights three years ago before knowing if it would be a “home” tournament. FIFA awarded those in a no-tender process to avoid legal action for moving the 2022 tournament dates in Qatar from the middle to the end of the year.

Politics 

A World Cup vote always has real world politics factored in.

President Donald Trump’s attempted travel ban targeting some Muslim-majority countries, and some comments that offended African and Central American countries, framed some of the early 2026 campaigning. 

Although FIFA vice president Sandor Csanyi on Tuesday said “I think there is no anti-United feeling.” 

In recent weeks, Trump publicly reminded traditional U.S. allies he is watching who they support when FIFA publishes each national football federation’s pick after the vote.

The Western Sahara issue also arose in campaigning, with some voters reminded that Morocco annexed the former Spanish colony in 1975. The Polisario Front liberation movement aims to end Morocco’s presence there.

“Football people have to stay away from non-football reasons (to vote),” said Estonia football president Aivar Pohlak, who is a FIFA ethics committee judge. 

Transport

North America’s bid is spread over four time zones and will necessitate air travel for a large percentage of traveling fans, and FIFA’s panel was unimpressed with some city public transport services.

Morocco promises fans can move around the country by road or train in a single time zone aligned with big European television markets. FIFA’s panel classed as “medium risk” Morocco’s plans for “a very large number of ambitious” transport projects by 2026.

Voting

Though FIFA voters rarely reveal their intentions in advance, the North Americans appear to have enough momentum to carry the 104 votes which would guarantee a first-ballot victory.  

With FIFA rules denying the candidate countries a vote, and Kosovo expected to be absent, 206 of FIFA’s 211 member federations should take part. Previously, FIFA’s elected board members chose World Cup hosts in private.

 

 
…

your ad here