Attorneys for former President Donald Trump are refusing to explain why the former president's political action committee paid a private investigator to do work surrounding the E. Jean Carroll civil rape case and the Manhattan District Attorney's criminal business fraud case, reported CBS News on Friday.
According to the report, Trump's Save America PAC paid $152,285.50 to the private investigation firm of Sean Crowley, a former New York police captain — although it is unclear what specifically he did. Joe Tacopina, an attorney who formerly represented Trump, said he believes it pertained to both Manhattan cases.
Crowley, however, is not giving answers — and nor is Trump's current legal team.
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"I think you should be talking to the attorneys regarding anything related to me and the PAC," Crowley told reporters. And when asked for comment, Susan Necheles, an attorney representing the former president, said, "I have no comment about what Crowley is doing. Obviously what the attorneys and investigators are doing to prepare for trial is privileged."
Michael Cohen, a former Trump fixer who served a brief stint in prison for arranging the $130,000 hush payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels that is now a focus of the Manhattan fraud case, believes that he was tailed by an investigator himself.
"Just about a month ago, I noticed a man photographing me outside my home – what he believed was clandestine," he told CBS. "I wouldn't be shocked if they were hired by Donald to gather intel on me to use at the upcoming trial cross-examinations."
Necheles has denied this, saying, "[Cohen] loves to be on TV, so we would have plenty of pictures or video of him if we needed them."
Trump's other case involved an allegation that he sexually assaulted columnist E. Jean Carroll in a New York department store in the late 1990s. A jury found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation, and Carroll is pursuing additional litigation, saying Trump has continued making the same false claims for which he was sued in the first place.
