On Friday, special counsel Robert Mueller filed a brief sentencing memorandum in response to Michael Cohen’s guilty plea for lying to Congress.
In those seven pages, however, the tight-lipped prosecutor revealed significant information about his investigation into Trump campaign ties to Russia’s efforts to interfere with the 2016 presidential election that Trump won.
Unlike his office’s other filings this week, none of the information in Cohen’s case was redacted.
Here’s what we learned:
1. Mueller sees a connection between the Trump Tower Moscow project and the core of his investigation into election interference.
As BuzzFeed News reported earlier this year, efforts by those close to Trump to finally get a Trump Tower built in Russia continued well into the campaign. Cohen’s efforts, which included discussions with Trump about the efforts, were hidden from public view during the campaign and downplayed by Cohen once Trump took office.
In the wake of BuzzFeed News’ reporting, Cohen also pleaded guilty to lying about the project to Congress. He told Congress that the project “was terminated in January of 2016,” when efforts had continued into June of that year. As noted in Friday’s filing, Cohen also initially lied to the special counsel’s office about the project. Read more
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