Michael Cohen's request for punishment appears to implicate Trump officials in his lies before Congress.

On Wednesday, Michael Cohen's lawyers submitted a sentencing memorandum asking their client to receive a "sentenced sentence" for tax evasion and for several crimes he allegedly committed at the request of his former client Donald Trump.

Cohen is sentenced to 51 to 63 months in prison on the basis of advisory directives, but it is not clear what he will serve.

As noted in Cohen's note, however, his cooperation with law enforcement officials appears to have been intense. Special advocate Robert Mueller will soon have the opportunity to make his voice heard on behalf of Cohen, as he did for Michael Flynn on Tuesday night in a remarkably light sentence recommendation. Cohen will seek similar treatment to Flynn after cooperating with seven interviews with Mueller's office, two interviews with investigators from the Southern District of New York, and the Attorney General's Office in New York.

As with the severely redacted Flynn sentencing information released Tuesday night, not much is new here. But the last of the consecutive versions tells us two important things: First, Mueller still holds his cards close to his chest. Secondly, it is clear that Mueller keeps his fire for other Trump officials.

Even if it was a release of Cohen, we can probably attribute to Mueller his lack of information – Cohen would not have disclosed further information about the extent of his co-operation without permission.

It is crucial to note that Cohen's lawyers disclosed additional details of Cohen's lies to Congress about a proposal by the Trump Tower in Moscow and the possible involvement of the White House in this cover-up. . Cohen asserts that the lies were "intended to profit [Trump]" and were "in accordance with the [Trump] guidelines".

[I] During the weeks in which his lawyer at the time prepared his written response to congressional committees, Michael remained in close and regular contact with White House staff and legal counsel at [Trump].

Cohen informed Congress about this work. The proposal on the Trump Moscow Tower had ended in January 2016. In fact, it had lasted at least until June. He also lied about the extent of his conversations with members of the Trump family and the Trump family about the proposal. Cohen says that he did this for Trump:

[Cohen] specifically knew, in accordance with the purpose of [Trump] to reject and minimize the merit of the investigation [special counsel] that [Trump] and its public spokespersons sought to describe any contact with them. Russian representatives from here [Trump]the Trump campaign or organization as having effectively ended before the caucus of Iowa on February 1, 2016.

The memo does not explicitly say how Cohen knew that such was Trump's wish and we do not know what it might be his testimony. . But we know why Trump would have liked to give that impression.

Trump had been saying for months that he had no business with Russia. In fact, Cohen's note indicates that Trump's Attorney at the time "was engaged in additional communications regarding the project until June 2016, and held [Trump] the current of these communications ".

In July 2016, barely a month after this latest known update of the Trump Tower in Moscow, Trump publicly criticized one of Russia's oldest and most violent clashes during World War II. an interview with a subsidiary of CBS in Miami:

CBS Miami: What is your impression of this idea that the Russians are trying to help you get elected?

Trump: Well, I do not know. I can tell you, I think if I found that, they would say, "Oh, it's a conspiracy theory," that's ridiculous. I mean, I have nothing to do with Russia. I do not have a job in Russia. I am everywhere in the world but we are not involved in Russia

CBS Miami: The theory is this, and I want you to address the issue head-on, because I think it's like that you like doing things, it is that your companies are indebted to Russian investments, russian dollars have invaded your companies and so, one way or another, Putin could control you by threatening your business.

Trump: Is this the theory? I did not hear that at all. I mean, I did not hear that. But I have nothing to do with Russia, nothing to do. I have never met Putin, I have absolutely nothing to do with Russia.

Another month before, Cohen was working on a Moscow Trump Tower proposal that would have involved a $ 50 million penthouse for the Russian president.

Trump's denial at the time, namely that Russia was working to help his candidacy, was also consistent with those of former campaign manager, Paul Manafort and Donald Trump Jr., who the same week as Trump's interview presented the idea that Russia could support the campaign as a "disgusting" smear orchestrated by the Clinton campaign. Since then, we have learned that Manafort and Trump Jr. both sent an email to June offering "information likely to incriminate Hillary" in the context of "Russia and the support of his government to Mr. Trump" , contrary to these denials. It has not yet been revealed whether the president was aware of the support promised via the infamous Trump Tower meeting in question, but denied that he was informed.

It is clear, however, that misleading statements about trade relations with Russia correspond precisely to lies about support for the Russian campaign, for example. connivance. It is also becoming increasingly clear that if there is a connection between the two, the special advocate seems extremely likely to find out.