Trump Russia: What we have learned about the Mueller probe

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With the end of the mid-term US elections, attention in the United States quickly picked up when Robert Mueller made his next move. It turned out that the wait was a little over three weeks.

In what could be a blockbuster maneuver, the special advocate unveiled his first new plea agreement in 10 weeks, reaching an agreement with Donald Trump's former personal attorney, Michael Cohen.

Until now, Cohen's legal complications were centered on the US Attorney's Office in Lower Manhattan – involving misconduct in tax matters and campaign financing. It was certainly a headache for the president, but it was outside of Mr. Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in 2016 and possible links with the Trump presidential campaign .

Now, Cohen occupies an important place in this survey, sharing information about his involvement in possible trade deals with Russia during the 2016 presidential election cycle.

• Trump's former lawyer admits to lying at Congress

It's a big news. But there is still a lot going on this week. Here is an overview of other things you may have missed.

1. What Roger Stone knew

On Tuesday, several US media reported what appears to be a plea agreement presented by the Special Advocate's Office to Jerome Corsi, a conservative author and former employee of the InfoWars plot plot.

The agreement, which closely resembles the documents filed by Mr. Mueller's team in other cases, says the campaign advisor and former Trump campaign advisor, Roger Stone (identified as " person 1 ") asked Mr. Corsi on July 25, 2016 – in the middle of the presidential campaign season – to contact WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a few days after the group published e-mails and pirated documents from the Committee national democratic.

According to an email cited in the agreement, Mr Stone wanted to know what other information obtained illegally possessed WikiLeaks ("Organization 1").

On August 2, Mr. Corsi sent an email to Stone to inform him of the arrival of two new email messages containing detrimental information about Ms. Clinton's health and the Clinton Foundation. (WikiLeaks would release the hacked emails from Clinton campaign president John Podesta 10 weeks later with embarrbading details, but not on health issues or charitable foundations.)

A few weeks after this email from Corsi on August 21, Mr. Stone sent out a tweet that became a central part of the investigation to determine if a person related to Mr. Trump had prior knowledge of emails. hacked from WikiLeaks.

"Trust me," Stone wrote, "it will soon be Podesta's time in the barrel."

On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Mr. Corsi had told a special board grand jury that Mr. Stone had asked him to help her propose a "cover story" for this tweet Podesta.

In the draft agreement, Mr. Corsi allegedly pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his efforts to contact Mr. Assange, who was confined to the Embbady of Ecuador. in London to avoid extradition to Sweden on charges of badual badault since August 2012.

He also admits to having removed the relevant emails in order to obstruct the investigation.

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Mr. Corsi stated that he had rejected the transaction as he had not knowingly lied to the investigators and that a sealed guilty plea could have resulted in the revocation of his securities dealer license.

Mr. Stone has confirmed the authenticity of the emails, but he denies having prior knowledge of the WikiLeaks documents. He told the Washington Post that he was only involved in "political gossip".

The special advocate's office declined to comment on the authenticity of the draft agreement or any other element related to this story.

In previous indictments, the special council has alleged that Russia was behind attacks by Podesta and Democratic Party leaders – a conclusion resonated by the US intelligence services.

He also claimed that WikiLeaks was the way the Russians chose to inject stolen documents into American political blood during the disputed presidential elections.

It now seems that Mr. Mueller's team is actively using it to determine if there are links going from WikiLeaks directly to the Trump campaign.

Mr Stone, who once said that he suspected that he would be indicted at one point, could be a key part of the puzzle.

2. What Trump knew

The news of Corsi is particularly noteworthy as it helps to reduce a bit the curtain during the next phase of the investigation on Mueller – the core of his mandate, which is to explore the possible links between Russia and Trump's presidential campaign. This was not the only relevant information on this week's Special Advocate investigation.

On Wednesday, CNN gave an initial overview of the answers provided by Mr Trump to the Special Council in response to written questions about the investigation in Russia.

According to two sources, the president reportedly stated that he had not spoken to Mr. Stone about WikiLeaks and that he had no prior knowledge of the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr, other campaigners and a group of Russians.

Prior to the meeting, Trump Jr. was informed that the Russians had information that could incriminate Democrat Hillary Clinton as part of the country's alleged efforts to support the Trump campaign.

"If that's what you say, I like it," answered the senior Trump son in an email.

The president publicly denied any advanced knowledge of this meeting and insisted that it was a routine effort to gather information about a political opponent who was not resulted in nothing. It now appears that he has made similar statements under oath – although CNN sources indicate that the President has nuanced his answers by writing that they were "to the best of his recollections".

Needless to say, if there was evidence that Mr. Trump was informed in advance of the Trump Tower meeting – which was attended by Trump Jr, Manafort and son-in-law Jared Kushner – this situation could be explosive politically and legally.

3. A blocked phone number

Californian MP Adam Schiff, who will chair the House's intelligence committee when the Democrats take control of the chamber in January, said one of the first things he would investigate would be whether Mr. Trump Jr. spoke to his father about the meeting.

In particular, he says that he is interested in a phone call that the son went to a blocked number the evening after his email "I love it" confirming the meeting with the Russians.

"Republicans have refused to consult phone records so we can find out [the recipient of the call] because they were afraid of the possible answer, "Schiff told USA Today.

However, according to an article in Observer.com, the attitude of Mr. Trump Jr with respect to the investigation is a "yawn".

The website – formerly the New York Observer, bought by Trump Kushner's son-in-law in 2006 – quotes a friend of Mr. Trump Jr's, stating that the number was not stuck, that he was " private "and that he was making thousands of calls a day. and we can not expect them to remember everyone.

4. Manafort denies having met Assange

Speaking of explosive revelations, the Guardian announced Tuesday morning that Manafort had met with Assange at the Embbady of Ecuador in London in 2013, 2015, and March 2016, just as Manafort was pressuring for its release. to involve in the Trump campaign.

If true, this could be another possible dividing line between WikiLeaks and the Trump team – and would be of considerable interest to the special board office.

There are, however, a number of great "buts" to attach to this story.

First, the Guardian has weakened the language of the article since its first publication, adding conditional times and words such as "apparent" and "could have had".

Second, WikiLeaks vehemently denied the story, questioning the author's credibility and threatening lawsuits for defamation against the newspaper. Manafort also rejected the report, saying he had never met Mr. Assange.

WikiLeaks and Mr. Assange also denied having had contact with Roger Stone, a long-time Trump partner, who later turned out to be in communication in October 2016.

Other media outlets have not yet independently confirmed the Guardian reports. The fact that this story came as a result of Mr. Mueller's trial that Manafort had repeatedly lied and contravened the cooperation agreement with the investigators, however, raised concerns.

The special attorney's office told the judge in charge of the case that he would submit a "detailed sentence proposal" explaining the extent of Manafort's misconduct. . If the submission is made public, it could be extremely revealing.

..but he went to Ecuador

Carl Bernstein of CNN also reported that the Special Council Office was investigating a May 2017 trip by Manafort to Ecuador, where he met with President Lenin Moreno.

The office of the Ecuadorian president explained that the meeting related to Chinese investments in a state-owned electricity company, but the team of Mr. Mueller would be interested in the fact that Mr. Assange or Wikileaks intervened during conversations.

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6. Accidental slip

More in Assange news, the Committee of Reporters for Press Freedom attempted on Tuesday to convince a federal judge to reveal whether the founder of WikiLeaks had been secretly indicted by the US government.

The effort relates to the accidental inclusion of Mr. Assange's name in an unrelated indictment, which suggests that a government attorney would have used a document related to Assange as model and forgot to change any references.

"The only thing we have admitted is that we made a mistake," said a government lawyer to the judge.

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If secret charges are brought against Mr. Assange, details of the nature of the indictment are provided, as well as the fact that this is related to Mr. Mueller's probe.

The group of journalists "convincingly argues that the public has the right to know what the charges are against him, namely that the cat is tied at three-quarters," Assange's lawyer told ABC News. at the end of the trial.

The judge stated that the parties to the case had two weeks to make their case before it made its decision.

7. Big problem or big boost?

In his recent book, Trump's Enemy, Corey Lewandowski, former head of Trump's presidential campaign, writes that, despite his reluctance to investigate the "witch hunt", the president himself even believes that the Mueller probe has made it politically more powerful.

"I think it strengthens my base," Trump tells Lewandowski in the book. "I never would have said that, but I think the level of love is now much greater than when we won."

Will love still be there once Mr. Mueller is finished? The day Mr. Trump could be re-elected is close to the day he won for the first time. The moment is coming when voters will have a chance to prove to him that he is right or wrong.