Cohen spoke with Russian to set

up Trump-Putin meeting,
Mueller reveals
Trump implicated in campaign finance law
violations as prosecutors allege he directed lawyer
to pay off two women
Tom McCarthy Sat 8 Dec 2018 00.21 GMT

As it happened: Mueller’s filings on Cohen and Manafort

One of Donald Trump’s closest advisers spoke during the 2016 election
campaign with a Russian offering help from Moscow and a meeting with
the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, the special counsel Robert Mueller
revealed on Friday.

Federal prosecutors also alleged that Trump directed the adviser, Michael
Cohen, to make illegal payoffs to two women who claimed to have had
sexual relationships with Trump, implicating the president in the violation
of campaign finance laws. They recommended that Cohen receive a prison
sentence of about four years.

The disclosures heaped new pressure on Trump, whose presidency has

come under siege from Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference in
the 2016 US election and a spinoff inquiry into Cohen, his lawyer and legal
fixer for more than a decade.

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They were swiftly followed by new revelations in the criminal prosecution

of Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. He was accused by
Mueller of repeatedly lying about his relationship with an alleged former
Russian intelligence operative and about his recent communications with
Trump’s White House.
Following a week of increasingly frenzied attacks against Mueller, Trump
falsely stated on Friday evening that the latest development “totally clears”
him. In fact, investigations appeared to be edging ever closer to the door of
the Oval Office.

Mueller said in a court filing that Cohen had provided him “useful
information” on matters at the core of the Trump-Russia investigation. He
also recounted details of communications with people “connected to the
White House” this year and last, Mueller said, hinting Cohen may have
implicated Trump and aides in additional wrongdoing.

The special counsel’s filing said Cohen’s November 2015 conversation with
a Russian national was among other “contacts with Russian interests” he
had while the Kremlin was interfering in the election to help Trump.

Cohen also told investigators he made efforts to contact the Russian

government to propose a meeting between Trump and Putin in New York
in September 2015, after discussing this with Trump.

In a separate filing, federal prosecutors in New York said Cohen “acted in

coordination and at the direction of” Trump when setting up payments to
buy the silence of Karen McDougal, a former model, and Stormy Daniels, a
pornographic actor, who were considering making public their allegations
of affairs with Trump.

Cohen and Trump paid the women to suppress their damaging stories and
“to influence the 2016 presidential election”, the filing said.

The White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, told reporters the filings
contained “nothing of value that wasn’t already known”, saying Cohen had
“repeatedly lied” and was “no hero”.

Mueller separately alleged that Manafort falsely claimed he had had no

contact with anyone in Trump’s administration since they entered office. In
fact, Mueller said, he was in communication with a senior official until
February this year, and asked an intermediary to talk to an official on his
behalf as recently as late May.
The contacts will be of great interest to investigators. Whether Manafort’s
ties to pro-Kremlin figures in eastern Europe are connected to Russia’s
interference in the 2016 election remains the central unanswered question
in the Trump-Russia inquiry.

While Mueller said Cohen provided significant help to his investigation,

prosecutors said Cohen had overstated his overall cooperation with the
government and had shown a “rose-colored view of the seriousness of the
crimes”.

Cohen was motivated by greed and “repeatedly used his power and
influence for deceptive ends”, the prosecutors said in a court filing. “After
cheating the [Internal Revenue Service] for years, lying to banks and to
Congress, and seeking to criminally influence the presidential election,
Cohen’s decision to plead guilty – rather than seek a pardon for his
manifold crimes – does not make him a hero.”

Despite his wrongdoing, Mueller said, Cohen disclosed “useful information

concerning certain discrete Russia-related matters” at the core of his
investigation. US intelligence agencies have concluded Russia’s
interference was aimed at helping Trump and harming the campaign of
Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent.

Cohen previously pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about Trump’s plans

to develop a building in Russia. He admitted the project continued well
into Trump’s campaign for the presidency – contradicting Trump’s account
– and that Cohen spoke with a Kremlin official about securing Russian
government support.
Paul Manafort leaves court in Washington in February. Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA

On Friday, Mueller disclosed that in November 2015, Cohen separately

spoke with a Russian “who claimed to be a ‘trusted person’ in the Russian
Federation” and offered Trump’s campaign “political synergy” and
“synergy on a government level”.

The Russian repeatedly proposed a meeting between Trump and Putin,

according to Mueller, and told Cohen the meeting “could have a
‘phenomenal’ impact ‘not only in political but in a business dimension as
well’”, because there was “no bigger warranty in any project than consent
of Putin”.

Mueller said Cohen chose not to pursue the offer of assistance in part
because he was working on the project with someone else he “understood
to have his own connections to the Russian government”, a likely reference
to Felix Sater, a developer who was working on the Trump Tower Moscow
plans.

Cohen previously pleaded guilty in August to violating election campaign

finance laws by arranging the payments to the two women. He also pleaded
guilty to several financial crimes relating to his business and tax affairs.

Last week, Mueller tore up a plea deal with Manafort and told a judge he
repeatedly lied to investigators even after agreeing to cooperate with the
Trump-Russia investigation.
In his submission on Friday, Mueller said Manafort had continued lying
about five areas of the inquiry, including his relationship with Konstantin
Kilimnik, a Russian employee of Manafort’s political consulting firm.
Kilimnik is alleged to have ties to Russian intelligence services, which he
denies. Manafort and Kilimnik are accused of asking business associates
early this year to lie about their past lobbying work.

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