Michael Cohen spoke to Mueller's team for hours; questioned about Russia, possible collusion, pardon: sources

Former Donald Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, has been involved in several lengthy interviews with investigators in the office of Special Advisor Robert Mueller over the last month, according to ABC News sources.

The interrogation of the special adviser on Cohen, one of the president's closest aides over the past decade, has focused mainly on all aspects of Trump's dealings with Russia, including commercial relations and allegations of collusion with Russia. substitutes for influencing the results of the 2016 presidential election, sources familiar with the issue told ABC News.

The investigators were also interested in knowing, according to sources, whether Trump or any of his associates had discussed the possibility of a pardon with Cohen.

In the 16 months Mueller investigated, the president repeatedly criticized the investigation as a partisan witch hunt, insisting that there was no collusion or obstruction of justice .

Mary Altaffer / AP, FILE

The interviews with Cohen took place in Washington, DC and New York. Prosecutors from the Office of the Prosecutor of the United States, in the Southern District of New York, also attended.

Cohen's participation in the meetings was voluntary – with no guarantee of clemency on the part of the prosecutors, according to several people familiar with the situation.

ABC News also learned that Cohen also cooperated with a separate investigation by New York State authorities into the internal workings of the Trump Charity and Trump Organization, where Cohen was executive vice president and special advisor for 10 years.

J. Scott Applewhite / AP, FILE

The news of Cohen's relations with federal and state investigators has drawn closer to another legal development potentially dangerous for the president: last week's guilty pleas by former Trump campaign president, Paul Manafort who had concluded a cooperation.

As the Manafort agreement took shape, Mueller's team had already discussed with Cohen.

And given Cohen's lengthy time in the vicinity of Trump, his family, and Trump's workings, some insiders view his cooperation with the authorities as one of the most serious potential legal threats to face. President.

Evan Vucci / AP

"These two guys want to be loved and they both want to be loyal," said a person close to President Trump and Cohen, who asked not to be named to speak freely. "Cohen's disavowal of Trump sparked a series of events that turned very good friends into permanent enemies. The consequences for both will be ugly. "

President Trump and his lawyers have recently criticized Cohen since he said earlier this year, in an exclusive interview with ABC News, that he was willing to cooperate with prosecutors, even if it put the president in danger. legal or political. The former Trump loyalist said in the interview that he rejected Trump's claims that Mueller's investigation was a "witch hunt" orchestrated by his political enemies.

Cohen promised to put "family and country first".

Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal attorney, who in May called Cohen "an honest and honorable lawyer," more recently claimed that Cohen was making stories about Trump to protect himself.

"I do not know anyone who knew him and did not warn me that if his back was against the wall, he would be completely mad, because he lied all his life," Giuliani told CNN in July.

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Last month in New York, Mr. Cohen pled guilty to eight crimes, including bank fraud, tax evasion and two campaign financing violations in connection with cash payments to women who claimed business with Trump. Mueller's team referred the investigation of these crimes to federal prosecutors in New York, which led to coordinated raids by the law firm and Cohen residences in April.

At an August hearing, Mr. Cohen told a federal judge that he had arranged to pay two women "in coordination and under the direction of a federal candidate", referring to former Trump candidate. participated in the transactions with the primary purpose of influencing the election.

These statements, under oath, were the face of Cohen's public comment on his role in agreements with Karen McDougal and Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels. Cohen had already insisted that he had paid Clifford his own money, on his own initiative and without Trump's knowledge.

Ringo H.W. Chiu / AP, FILE

The president has long denied the allegations of these cases with McDougal and Clifford and said he did not know in advance what Cohen had concluded. The day of Cohen's appearance, the president openly mocked him on Twitter.

"If someone is looking for a good lawyer, I strongly suggest you do not retain Michael Cohen's services!" Wrote the president.

Since his guilty plea last month, Cohen has also been in contact with the New York Attorney General's office, according to several people close to the case.

In June, New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood filed a civil suit accusing Trump's charitable foundation and its directors of "persistently violating state and federal laws governing charity invoices". the promotion of Trump hotels and the purchase of personal items.

Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic via Getty Images, FILE

The prosecution named Trump, his sons Don Jr. and Eric and his daughter Ivanka as defendants.

A representative of the Trump Foundation called the lawsuit, "politics at its worst."

The Underwood office did not rule out launching a state criminal investigation into the foundation if the evidence justified it. She also asked the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Election Commission to review the operations of the charity.

A spokesman for the New York Attorney General's office declined to comment on the report.

In a previous public statement from the office, spokeswoman Amy Spitalnick said, "We can not comment on potential or ongoing investigations. As our lawsuit against the Trump Foundation illustrates, we will hold Donald Trump and his associates responsible for violations of state law, and will seek, where appropriate, a request for removal of the law from the state. 39, appropriate state agency.

Brendan Smialowski / AFP / Getty Images, FILE

Cohen's relationship with Trump dates back to the mid-2000s after Cohen, who owned condominiums in several Trump buildings in New York City, took Trump's lawyer in a dispute with the Trump World Tower board of directors over the East Side of Manhattan. He joined the Trump organization in 2007.

Cohen's dealings with the Trump family business cover a wide range of his global empire, including several projects that have attracted the attention of federal investigators. Cohen played a key role in the early talks on a possible Trump Tower in Moscow – negotiations that took place during the first months of the 2016 presidential campaign.

This agreement never materialized.

Cohen confirmed that he had attended a lunch with a Ukrainian politician a week after Trump took office, where the two men discussed Cohen's potential to share a peace proposal with his White House contacts.

And Cohen's name has appeared several times in the now infamous record of unverified allegations, which included salacious statements about Trump, prepared by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele. The agent, who was hired by an opposition research firm that was initially paid by the Republicans and later by the Democrats, claimed that Cohen had been involved in attempts to conceal Russian-Russian contacts. members of the Trump campaign.

Cohen has fiercely denied the claims. In January, he tweeted, "Enough, that's enough #fake #RussianDossier."

Since last month, Cohen's friends have stated that he felt isolated. He is unemployed, facing an avalanche of debt and the possibility of spending several years in federal prison.

With a multi-million dollar net worth, Cohen recently launched an online fundraising effort to help pay for rising legal fees.

He must be sentenced on December 12 by the federal court in New York.

A spokesman for the special council office declined to comment on this story. A Cohen lawyer could not be reached immediately.