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During the process, the special council begins to expose the lies and obscurities that people around Trump and the president himself have erected to try to hide multiple unexplained links with the Russians in 2016 and before.
He provides implicit explanations along the way about the strangely attentive relationship of the president with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
And Mueller now passes a red line warned by Trump that could prompt him to get fired – by probing his trading empire.
By sponsoring a court document detailing Cohen's confession and asking his team to spend 70 hours obtaining additional testimony, Mueller signals to his new star witness that he could say more about it and that there could be other serious revelations to come.
In fact, Thursday could have This was the most important day to date in the Mueller investigation that long darkened Trump's presidency.
The cooperation agreement could offer documents, other evidence and testimonials uder Mueller takes deep into Trump's family and personal circle.
The fact that Cohen confessed to having lied to Congress on a Trump effort to seal an agreement for the construction of a Trump tower in Moscow, at the heart of the 2016 presidential campaign, sparked a wave of Unsettling questions that Mueller has yet to answer.
In fact, he was telling the story of a presidential candidate who had been entangled in a commercial relationship with a nation that Mueller had accused in previous indictment indictments. have conducted an "information war" against the United States. disrupts the elections and helps Trump to enter the White House.
"Were the two great people who acted as a link between the campaign and Russia or Wikileaks, and what encouragement did Trump have to cooperate with the Russians and why is he so indebted to them? ? "said Jens David Ohlin, vice-dean of Cornell Law School.
"I think we now have possible answers to both of these questions."
What Mueller has not yet proved
Mueller has not yet to prove that Trump's commercial activities have marked his approach to Russia. He did not directly contradict the fervent denials of collusion between Trump and his campaign in Moscow.
Moreover, it is unclear whether Mueller has documentary evidence to implicate the President in a wrongdoing, or simply relies on Cohen's testimony. Many legal experts doubt that he is betting on a witness like Cohen, who admitted to lying, with no evidence to support him.
But nothing clearly indicates that Trump broke the law. And, despite developments on Thursday, nothing indicates that a political situation in Washington that still makes the impeachment procedure improbable has changed.
Trump, just after arriving in Buenos Aires for the G20, showed that the investigation was still in his mind. despite the upcoming conference.
"It's an illegal hoax that should be eliminated immediately," the president tweeted Thursday night.
But Thursday's developments must also be considered in the context of Mueller's work so far.
In After a series of accusations, he built the image of a sophisticated Russian hacking operation, an attempt to infect the American political dialogue with lies and a distraction on social media and has charged and convicted a number of Trump associates and advisers for lying to his investigation. [19659002] He may be trying to establish that Trump and his entourage were fully aware of Russia's activities, despite their vehement assertions that there would be nothing to do with it. no collusion.
Some observers. I think the wealth of details of Mueller's legal filings is a way to paint a picture of Russian interference and Trump's world behavior in case the president finds a way to block his eventual final report.
There are immediate and long-term political and political relations. the legal consequences of Cohen throwing himself firmly into Mueller's camp.
His assertions, made under oath and with the certainty of a lengthy sentence of imprisonment if he does not tell the truth, directly contradict Trump's assurances that he would not have had no relationship or business relationship with Russia.
If that is the case, Trump lied brazenly to the American people.
By another blow, Cohen said he lied for political reasons.
"I made sure that these statements were consistent with those of Individual-1 political messages and to be true to the individual 1," said Cohen in a document filed to the court, referring to the president.
His statement raises another issue that has not been answered in the paper. [19659002] Did the president know that Cohen was lying in Congress or had he forced to do it? If that were the case, such a measure would certainly go beyond the kind of abuse of power that would be part of the indictment articles.
The President called Cohen "weak" on Thursday and said he was lying to Mueller. save a long prison sentence after confessing to being a victim of tax and financial fraud. He made the remarks to reporters before heading to the G20 summit in Argentina, in an unsolicited statement that seemed to show his discomfort.
Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, also criticized Cohen.
And he tried to tape a question that made Cohen tick. around Washington immediately after the news of Cohen: did Trump tell the special advocate differently about his hopes of building a Trump tower in Moscow, contrary to what Cohen said, a version of the facts that Mueller believes clearly?
According to Giuliani that there was "no contradiction" between Trump's answers to Mueller and Cohen. And he suggested that while waiting for Cohen until the President gave his answers to his questions in recent days, he might have set a trap.
"Their stealth did not work if that was what they were trying to do." Giuliani said.
Trump's defense may have turned against himself
Yet Trump's self-defense raised another issue that could weaken his position and cause trouble for his legal team .
He said that it was justified to look for business opportunities in Russia while he was running for president because he might not have reached the White House and should not be penalized for have lost a chance to make money.
"I ran my business while I was campaigning," Trump told reporters.
"There was a good chance I would not have won, in which case I would have returned to the company and why should I lose a lot of opportunities?"
Comment Trump left the impression that he was using his platform as a presidential candidate to enrich rather than serve the American people.
More troubling still, the possibility that he might get a favored treatment from Russia could be a motivation for a change. to the Republican National Convention
And the fact that he lied about not having a business relationship with Russia after entering into the agreement allowed him to do so. exercising a power of persuasion when he became president, opening the possibility of a serious threat to national security if he was perceived as compromising.
Trump might have also compromised a defense opportunity, Cohen being the main actor in the search for the Trump Tower Moscow agreement, when he said: "I decided not to do the project, so I did not do it. "
Some Trump supporters have warned against irresponsible overcoming of the findings and questioning Cohen's credibility.
"The sky is falling all of a sudden because there is another plea agreement – who knows how it will work in terms of Michael Cohen's credibility," said Jim Schultz, a former lawyer. from Trump White House in "Cuomo Prime Time".
The White House was prepared for some kind of Cohen bomb since his appearance in Washington to meet with Mueller's attorneys earlier this month.
What must worry the most now, as well as other close to Trump who could be involved by the Russian organization, is what he said during consultations that have stretched to the present day. for three full days.
Pamela Brown of CNN contributed to this report.
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