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Report by Pat Milton
Michael Cohen, former personal advocate of President Trump, made a surprise appearance Thursday in the US court in Manhattan, where he pleaded guilty to a charge of misrepresentation before Congress about his work on development. of a Trump tower in Russia. The advocacy indicates that the discussions on the project lasted longer than Cohen had announced in the 2016 presidential campaign. They involved discussions with Mr Trump about a trip to Moscow.
As the president left the White House for a summit of world leaders in Argentina, he answered reporters' questions about Cohen's latest advocacy agreement. Trump calls former personal lawyer "weak" and "no one's very smart" and he accused him of "lying" and said "he's trying to get a reduced sentence for things that have nothing to do with me".
Cohen should be sentenced on December 12, according to a person familiar with the case.
In his testimony in court, Cohen pleaded guilty to holding the inaccuracies by stating, "I have corrected these inaccuracies to correspond to the individual's political message 1 and his loyalty to him." 39, individual 1 ". Although the criminal information does not identify the individual 1, Cohen confirmed in court that President Trump was the individual 1.
Cohen's misrepresentations are related to his correspondence with the House and Senate intelligence committees, which were investigating Russia's interference in the US election. In August, just before being questioned by the Senate Intelligence Committee, Cohen issued a letter describing the project, which, he said, was similar to other projects undertaken by Trump Organization .
As part of this deal, the Trump organization would award the Trump brand to a Moscow-based real estate development company, which would be responsible for all development and financing costs. Cohen said in his letter that he "had determined that the proposal was not feasible" by the end of January 2016.
The letter displeased the Senate committee, which found that Trump's associates tended to leak favorably parts of the private testimony, which led them to cancel the day's interview. Cohen was, however, interviewed in camera by the House Intelligence Committee in 2017.
Most of the criminal information of the special advocate focuses on the statements contained in Cohen's public letter. According to criminal reports, Cohen did not disclose the project schedule, nor his discussions with people from "The Company" and Russia, nor with a trip to Russia related to the project.
Cohen stated in the letter that the project "was under study at the Trump Organization from September 2015 until the end of January 2016" and that he had not discussed it with the other members of the society. In fact, according to criminal reports, "the Moscow project was discussed several times within the company and did not end in January 2016". In June 2016, Cohen was still talking about getting the project approved by the governments. In June, it was obvious that Mr. Trump would have asked the delegates to win the Republican presidential nomination.
Cohen's letter also stated that he "had never considered asking Mr. Trump to visit Russia in connection with this proposal". Criminal information has said the opposite. "Cohen has agreed to go to Russia as part of the Moscow project and has taken steps towards the eventual journey of the individual 1 to Russia", it is written. The special council added that Cohen had asked "the individual 1 about the possibility that the individual 1 is going to Russia as part of the Moscow project, and to a senior travel campaigner. potential professionals in Russia ". But he does not say whether Mr. Trump has planned to travel to Russia.
Cohen spoke in a straightforward and straightforward way by writing his plea in criminal information, said two people present in the courtroom. Three prosecutors working on the investigation of the special advocate Robert Mueller on the interference of Russia in the 2016 presidential election were present in the audience hall. Cohen has cooperated and will continue to cooperate with the Mueller probe.
Last year, Cohen confirmed to Jeff Pegues of CBS News he had spoken with then candidate Donald Trump about a real estate contract in Moscow three times, briefly. Cohen told Pegues in August 2017 that conversations with Trump on the subject "totaled less than four minutes". He described this situation in Pegues as an "important deal" with a product that would have "lasted indefinitely" and included offices, housing and hotels in Moscow. The Wall Street Journal first recounted the conversations between Mr. Trump and Cohen on the project. Criminal information indicated that Cohen had spoken to Mr. Trump more than the three times he had testified before the committee and had also informed his family of the project.
In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to the charges stemming in part from his campaign work for President Trump, and it is expected that he will be sentenced for this pleading on December 12th. It is not yet known whether he will be sentenced for this new pleading on the same date.
Full text of Michael Cohen's application today
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