Key Takeaways from the Cohen Filings

Here are key takeaways from the sentencing memos filed by Mueller and SDNY prosecutors tonight:

MORE EVIDENCE OF RUSSIA CONTACTS: Cohen told Mueller’s office about at least two additional contacts he had on Trump’s behalf with people close to the Russian government.

Mueller: “For example, and as described above, the defendant provided a detailed account of his involvement and the involvement of others in the Moscow Project, and also corrected the record concerning his outreach to the Russian government during the week of the United Nations General Assembly.”

Mueller: “The defendant also provided information about attempts by other Russian nationals to reach the campaign. For example, in or around November 2015, Cohen received the contact information for, and spoke with, a Russian national who claimed to be a ‘trusted person’ in the Russian Federation who could offer the campaign ‘political synergy’ and ‘synergy on a government level.’”

Continue reading “Key Takeaways from the Cohen Filings”

Mueller recommends no jail time for Flynn, citing his ‘substantial assistance’

Special counsel Robert Mueller has asked a federal court for no prison time for President Trump‘s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, citing his “substantial assistance” in the Russia investigation and other ongoing probes.

In a court filing released late Tuesday, Mueller said it would be “appropriate” for the judge to impose a sentence for Flynn that does not include prison time. Federal sentencing guidelines called for Flynn to be sentenced to between zero and six months in prison and face up to a $9,500 fine.

“The offense level and guideline range, however, do not account for a downward departure pursuant to Section 5K1.1 of the United States Sentencing Guidelines reflecting the defendants substantial assistance to the government, which the government has moved for contemporaneously,” Mueller’s prosecutors wrote in a filing on Tuesday, referring to a motion that a prosecutor files in a case where a cooperating defendant rises to the level of “substantial assistance.”

View the complete December 4 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

The Memo: Trump’s Mueller problems deepen, worrying allies

President Trump’s problems are deepening after a dramatic week in the Robert Mueller probe, and even his allies are worried about what might come next.

Trump has become increasingly enraged about the special counsel’s probe after a week in which his former personal attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress and affirmed his full cooperation with Mueller.

Mueller also stepped away from a cooperation agreement with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, accusing Manafort of lying. And the author and conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi publicized a draft plea agreement with Mueller, even as he rejected that deal.

View the complete December 2 article by Niall Stanage on The Hill website here.

Mueller eyes Ivanka and Don Jr.’s work on Trump Tower Moscow

Credit: Yahoo News; photos; AP (3), Getty Images

WASHINGTON – Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into President Trump’s efforts to build a skyscraper in Moscow has led him to ask questions about the role two of the president’s children played in attempting to secure a Russian real estate deal, sources tell Yahoo News.

Mueller’s interest in the Trump family real estate company’s plans for a skyscraper in Russia was confirmed on Thursday when Michael Cohen, the president’s former attorney and fixer, pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the proposed deal. In charging documents, Mueller said Cohen falsely claimed that the effort to build a Trump Tower Moscow “ended in January 2016” in an attempt to “minimize” links between Trump and the project and to “give the false impression” the effort ended before the Republican primaries in 2016. Yahoo News first reported in May that congressional investigators had obtained text messages and emails showing Cohen’s work on Trump Tower Moscow continued for longer than he admitted under oath.

But Cohen wasn’t the only person at the Trump Organization who was pursuing deals to build a skyscraper in the Russian capital. Multiple sources have confirmed to Yahoo News that the president’s elder daughter, Ivanka, who is now a top White House adviser, and his eldest son, Don Jr., were also working to make Trump Tower Moscow a reality. The sources said those efforts were independent of Cohen’s work on the project. One of the sources said Ivanka was also involved in Cohen’s efforts. And a separate source familiar with the investigation told Yahoo News that Mueller has asked questions about Ivanka and Don Jr.’s work on Trump Tower Moscow.

View the complete November 29 article by Hunter Walker on the Yahoo News website here.

Michael Cohen’s new guilty plea should scare the pants off Donald Trump and the White House

Michael Cohen, former personal attorney to Donald Trump, pleaded making false statements to Congress about a Moscow real estate project Trump pursued during the months he was running for president. Credit: Drew Angerer, Getty Images

Cohen pleaded guilty to lying before Congress about Donald Trump’s real estate dealings in Russia.

Longtime Donald Trump attorney Michael Cohen made a surprise appearance in a Manhattan federal court on Thursday, where he pleaded guilty to a federal crime as part of a new agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller in connection with his ongoing Russia investigation.

Cohen pleaded guilty to lying under oath before Congress when he testified in a closed-door hearing in the fall of 2017. According to the Associated Press, his false statements involved Donald Trump’s business dealings in Russia.

Eric Tucker@etuckerAP

NEW YORK (AP) — Michael Cohen pleads guilty to lying to Congress about Trump real estate project in Russia.

245 people are talking about this

The financial ties between the Trump Organization and Russian investors has long been thought to be a central focus of Mueller’s investigation. A draft of questionsMueller’s team planned to pose to Donald Trump included a specific inquiry about any communication Trump had with Cohen regarding Russian real estate developments during the campaign. Trump reportedly submitted answers to Mueller’s team just last week.

View the complete November 29 article by Adam Peck and Jason Linkins on the Think Progress.org website here.

Cohen pleads guilty for misstatements to Congress about contacts with Russians

President Trump‘s former personal attorney Michael Cohen on Thursday pleaded guilty for misstatements he made to Congress while testifying about his contacts with Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Cohen appeared in a federal court in Manhattan after reaching a deal with special counsel Robert Mueller.

He pleaded guilty to making a false statement about the effort to build a Trump Tower in Moscow during the 2016 presidential campaign while testifying before Congress, according to court documents, and made false statements about the timing of the project.

View the complete November 29 article by Justin Wise on The Hill website here.

Trump makes clear that he is still considering a pardon for Paul Manafort — deepening his own legal peril

“Obstruction of justice out in the open.”

This week has been full of Paul Manafort-related bombshells. On Monday, November 26, the news broke that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was terminating Manafort’s plea deal because he had been lying repeatedly to federal investigators. And the following day, the New York Times reported that Manafort (President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager) had been funneling information on Mueller’s investigation to Trump’s attorneys—a major breach of the plea deal. But with Manafort now facing the possibility of spending the rest of his life in federal prison, Trump is not ruling out the possibility of a presidential pardon.

During a Nov. 28 Oval Office interview with the New York Post, Trump explained that a pardon for Manafort “was never discussed, but I wouldn’t take it off the table. Why would I take it off the table?”

Other reports have suggested that Trump has discussed the idea of pardoning Manafort.

View the complete November 28 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet.org website here.

Mueller protection bill blocked in Senate

Legislation protecting special counsel Robert Mueller was blocked on Wednesday for a second time in the past month.

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), joined by Sens. Christopher Coons (D-Del.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), tried to get consent to schedule the long-stalled legislation for a vote.

Flake questioned why his colleagues weren’t “up in arms” after a string of tweets from President Trump bashing Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

View the complete November 28 article by Jordain Carney on The Hill website here.

Mueller says Manafort lied after pleading guilty, should be sentenced immediately

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III said on Nov. 26 that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort lied to investigators and breached his plea agreement. (Reuters)

Prosecutors with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III said Monday that Paul Manafort breached his plea agreement, accusing President Trump’s former campaign chairman of lying repeatedly to them in their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Manafort denied doing so intentionally, but both sides agreed in a court filing that U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District should set sentencing immediately.

The apparent collapse of Manafort’s cooperation agreement is the latest stunning turnaround in his case, exposing the longtime Republican consultant to at least a decade behind bars after he pleaded guilty in September to charges of cheating the Internal Revenue Service, violating foreign-lobbying laws and attempting to obstruct justice.

View the complete November 26 article by Spencer S. Hsu, Rachel Weiner and Devlin Barrett on The Washington Post website here.

Want to Know More About: Mueller’s Russia Investigation?

David Gregory: “The President Has Demonstrated Over And Over Again He Will Do Whatever He Can Do To Undermine The Investigation Short Of Firing Mueller. The Game Is Not Over Yet.” DAVID GREGORY: “The president has demonstrated over and over again he will do whatever he can do to undermine the investigation short of firing Mueller. The game is not over yet. He fired Jim Comey because he did not like how he was handling the investigation, and he deliberately brought on a new attorney general that had been outspoken in his criticism of this investigation and he is now making it clear that in his opinion the special prosecutor is pressuring people to lie and to flip against him. He’s been engaged in a political attack on this investigation from the very beginning and now it’s not just a message to manafort but others out there, whether it’s Flynn, whether it’s Michael Cohen, that if you can stay strong, obviously, Flynn already cooperated, that he may come to the rescue.” [New Day, CNN, 11/29/18; Video]

Nia Malika Henderson: “The President Seems To Have Some Sort Of Window Into The Mueller Investigation That He Might Not Have Had Weeks Ago.” NIA MALIKA HENDERSON: “Manafort’s lawyers are talking to Trump’s lawyers and the President seems to have some sort of window into the Mueller investigation that he might not have had weeks ago.” [New Day, CNN, 11/29/18; Video]

David Gregory: “Whatever, The Conclusion Of The Investigation, The Stunning Disregard Of How To Behave As A Presidential Candidate Is What Leaps Off The Page When You Look At This History.” DAVID GREGORY: “The fact there was this flirtation with Russia that was very open, that the president was talking about it on the campaign trail and there was nobody around the president to say how incredibly inappropriate it would be to get opposition research from a foreign government, to say nothing that, in fact, it would come from Putin’s Russia is astonishing. Whatever, the conclusion of the investigation, the stunning disregard of how to behave as a presidential candidate is what leaps off the page when you look at this history.” [New Day, CNN, 11/29/18; Video] Continue reading “Want to Know More About: Mueller’s Russia Investigation?”