[ad_1]
The special advocate, Robert Mueller, released a memorandum Friday detailing the cooperation testimonials provided by Michael Cohen, former lawyer and longtime advisor to President Donald Trump.
Mueller's note on sentence and a separate note filed last week by Cohen's lawyers indicate that he testified for 70 hours in front of the special advocate, who is investigating the interference of Russia in the 2016 election and wonders if the Trump campaign has collaborated with Moscow to tilt the race. in favor of Trump.
Read more: Federal prosecutors recommend "substantial" prison term for Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, claiming he had demonstrated a "multi-year deception scheme"
On November 30, Cohen entered into an agreement to plead guilty to a charge of lying to Congress in exchange for his cooperation with the special council. Cohen admitted to having falsely stated in his testimony at the September 2017 Congress that the Trump Organization had terminated negotiations on the construction of a Trump tower in Moscow sometime in January 2016.
Reality, according to prosecutors, these discussions continued until June 2016, and that Cohen "admitted that he had told these lies – that he had publicly exposed and submitted to Congress – in order to minimize the links between the Moscow project and the individual 1 ", referring to Trump.
Cohen testified before Mueller on the following topics:
The Trump Organization's Attempt to Construct a Trump Tower in Moscow
The Note states that Cohen provided "a detailed account of his involvement and that of other people in Moscow "Project", an effort that went on until June 2016, after Trump became the presumed candidate in the Republican presidential election. [19659002] The note goes on to describe "around November 2015 approximately, Cohen received contact information from a Russian citizen who introduced himself as" a trusted person "in the Russian Federation and who could offer the campaign "political" synergy "and" synergy at the governmental level. "
Although this person is not named in the memo, BuzzFeed News reported in January that Cohen had contacted the Russian weightlifter Dmitry Klokov about the project." Klokov claimed to be in touch with the Russian president Vladimir Putin, allegedly introduced by Ivanka Trump, then vice-president of the Trump Organization
According to the memo, Klokov reportedly told Cohen that a meeting between Trump and Putin would have a "phenomenal" impact "not only politically but also also in a commercial dimension", referring to the Moscow project, because "there is no greater guarantee in a No project than the consent of [the President of Russia]."
Cohen did not respond to the offer of Klokov, telling him that there was an agreement for the construction of a Trump tower between Russia and the Czech Republic. Trump Organization.
To find out more: Trump and his allies' explanations of the contacts of the campaign with Russia have undergone a radical evolution, new evidence being revealed
The Memorandum on Mueller's conviction indicated that Cohen's false testimony before Congress "obscures" the fact that the Trump Tower agreement in Moscow represents a potentially lucrative business opportunity requiring the approval of the Russian government.
"If the project was completed, the company could have received hundreds of millions of dollars from Russian sources in license fees and other revenues," says the memo. He also added that Cohen's ongoing work on the proposal, as well as his communications with Trump, were all the more relevant as they occurred while the Russian government was actively involved in the election of 2016 to tip the race in favor of Trump.
Other "Discrete Matters Related to Russia"
The note states that "Cohen provided [special counsel] with useful information concerning certain separate Russia-related issues that are at the heart of his investigation and that" he has obtained through his regular contacts with the Society. cadres during the campaign. "
This line stands out, since many of the" Company's "leaders are part of Trump's immediate family and have been involved in other parts of the investigation.
Donald Trump Jr., also vice-president of the Trump Organization, attended a meeting of the Trump Tower in June 2016 with the highest officials of the campaign and two Russian lobbyists who proposed to dirty the campaign. Hillary Clinton. The parties involved said that nothing came from the meeting and that the Trump campaign had not gotten the promised kompromat, but the campaign's willingness to meet Kremlin members stung investigators' interest.
Trump Jr. also testified before Congress last year that his father had no prior knowledge of the meeting. If the investigators knew that Trump was aware, however, the revelation would risk plunging his eldest son into the same legal problem that Cohen was found to have misled Congress.
Cohen, along with two other Trump associates at least, indicated that Trump perhaps knew more about the meeting than he had suggested.
Read more: Michael Cohen's plea agreement represents a significant danger for Donald Trump Jr.
Contacts with "White House-Linked" Persons [19659008] Mueller's memo also mentioned that Cohen provided the "relevant" information. useful information regarding his contacts with people related to the White House during the period 2017-2018. "
This line is also important, because" relevant and useful "information provided to the investigation by the special advocate could indicate that Mr. Cohen and the inhabitants of the White House or surrounding area have pursued their criminal activities after the campaign and well during the first two years of the Trump administration
"It seems to me that someone else on Trump 's orbit will be charged with conspirator, either for lying at Congress or for obstructing justice, "said Jens David Ohlin, deputy dean of Cornell Law School and criminal law expert.
" Preparing and disseminating "his false testimony at the Congress.
Finally, the memo states that Cohen "described the circumstances in which he prepared and circulated his response to congressional investigations, while continuing to assume responsibility for the false statements that he contained. . "
Ohlin stated that the memo also stated that Cohen had disclosed with whom he had collaborated within the administration" while still assuming responsibility for his misrepresentations ".
" This seems to me to be considered a collective crime with several perpetrators, "said Ohlin." Other indictments are likely, particularly with regard to contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia, which is the last piece of the puzzle. "
Mueller's memo was published shortly after the Southern District of New York filed a separate Sentencing Memo regarding Cohen's cooperation in investigating his case. financial transactions with Trump's before the elections
In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to tax evasion, bank fraud and campaign-funding violations and declared that he had violated the electoral law by articipating to payments to two women who claim to have had dealings with Trump shortly before the 2016 race. Cohen told investigators that he had done so on the order of Trump.
The Friday note from the US Attorney's Office in Manhattan echoed Cohen's complaint, stating that he had committed his crimes "in coordination with and under the direction of" Trump, identified in the paper as being individual-1.
"The biggest benefit of this case is that prosecutors have appointed President Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator," said Jeffrey Cramer, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago who spent 12 years at the Department of Justice. "And this is not just based on Cohen's words, these documents clearly show that investigators also have other independent corroborating evidence."
"You really can not exaggerate that," he added. "The President of the United States was a co-conspirator not charged with a crime, when was the last statement made?"
Source link
