Sonam Sheth

Sign up for the latest Russia investigation updates <a id="1b141795-9d3e-3612-aefb-7c1ae0e9bcc2" href="http://e.businessinsider.com/join/the-russia-investigation?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> here </a> .

Michael Cohen's <a id="2f6ebdc7-ec8e-39b1-a628-b39af36389a6" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-cohen-committed-crimes-with-and-for-trump-prosecutors-say-2018-12?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> sentencing memo </a> , released by special counsel Robert Muller's office on Friday, brings the spotlight back to Ivanka Trump's contacts with a Russian athlete who pitched a Trump-Putin meeting during the 2016 election campaign.

The memo, which recommends <a id="a347d41b-6609-32c1-af25-03e7b9cc4b21" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/special-counsel-mueller-recommends-three-half-year-sentence-for-michael-cohen-2018-12?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> that he serve a prison sentence </a> concurrent with one recommended by federal prosecutors related to different charges, also revealed further contact between Cohen and a "Russian national" around November 2015.

This person mentioned in Mueller's memo "claimed to be a 'trusted person' in the Russian Federation who could offer the campaign 'political synergy' and 'synergy on a government level.'"

The memo also claims the person "repeatedly" proposed a meeting between "Individual 1" (thought to be Donald Trump) and "the President of Russia" (President Vladimir Putin). Cohen, the memo claims, did not follow through with the offer.

The special counsel's mention of this Russian national is leading to speculation that the dates line up with previous BuzzFeed news reporting about Ivanka Trump, Cohen, and a Russian athlete named Dmitry Klokov.

Ivanka Trump connected Michael Cohen with a Russian athlete, who offered to introduce Donald Trump to Russian President Vladimir Putin, <a id="40558502-0262-335a-af78-96dd0bf133eb" href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/anthonycormier/ivanka-trump-putin-moscow-meeting-michael-cohen-tower?utm_term=.wo7EVABK4#.ef6lyLbn9"> BuzzFeed News reported in June of 2018. </a> The goal of the proposed meetingwas to help pave the way for a Trump Tower in Moscow, according to emails and four sources BuzzFeed spoke with.

Ivanka Trump, the president's eldest daughter, told Cohen in November 2015 to talk to the athlete, the former Olympic weightlifter Dmitry Klokov, and Cohen had at least one subsequent phone conversation with Klokov, the report says.

BuzzFeed reported that Cohen and Klokov also exchanged several emails, in one of which Klokov told Cohen he could set up a meeting between Putin and Donald Trump, a presidential candidate at the time, to clear the way for a Trump Tower in Moscow.

But Cohen reportedly emailed Klokov to decline his offer and say the Trump Organization already had a deal to pursue the project.

The Russian athlete copied Ivanka Trump in his reply and questioned Cohen's authority to make decisions for the Trump Organization, at which point Trump asked Cohen why he did not want to pursue the deal through Klokov, the report says.

BuzzFeed said Klokov told the outlet he did not "send any emails" to Cohen but stopped responding when the publication told him it had learned that he had sent at least two emails to Cohen and had at least one phone call with him at Trump's request.

Both congressional and FBI investigators are said to be looking into the events and working out the details of how the first daughter knows Klokov, including by reviewing emails and questioning witnesses.

A source with direct knowledge of the matter told Business Insider that the special counsel Robert Mueller's office had not contacted the White House with any document or interview requests related to Ivanka Trump.

<h1> Other efforts to build a Trump Tower Moscow were already in the works </h1>

Cohen's rejection of Klokov's request may have to do, at least in part, with the fact that by that time, he and his longtime associate, the Russian-born businessman Felix Sater, had been collaborating for weeks to secure financing for the deal.

Sater first <a id="dfdae378-7db2-3bc7-a769-c4c124664c30" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-tower-moscow-letter-of-intent-2017-9?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> sent a letter of intent </a> to Cohen outlining the terms of the "Trump World Tower Moscow" deal on October 13, 2015. Andrey Rozov, a Russian investor, had already signed it by the time Sater forwarded it to Cohen for Trump's signature.

"Lets make this happen and build a Trump Moscow," Sater wrote in a note attached to the letter and shared by The New York Times' Maggie Haberman. "And possibly fix relations between the countries by showing everyone that commerce &amp; business are much better and more practical than politics. That should be Putins message as well, and we will help him agree on that message. Help world peace and make a lot of money, I would say that's a great lifetime goal for us to go after."

In November — the same month Ivanka Trump told Cohen to contact Klokov — Cohen and Sater exchanged a series of emails gearing up to celebrate the Trump Tower Moscow deal. In the emails, <a id="8fc8901c-3ed1-3509-aff6-f5c520252616" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/28/us/politics/trump-tower-putin-felix-sater.html"> obtained by The Times </a> , Sater bragged about his relationship with Putin and told Cohen he would "get all of Putins team to buy in" on the deal.

He also wrote that he "arranged for Ivanka to sit in Putins private chair at his desk and office in the Kremlin."

Of Donald Trump, Sater wrote: "Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it."

Cohen was advocating the project as late as January 2016, when he contacted Dmitry Peskov, a top aide to Putin, about pushing the Trump Tower Moscow deal through.

"Over the past few months I have been working with a company based in Russia regarding the development of a Trump Tower-Moscow project in Moscow City," Cohen wrote to Peskov, <a id="10529dac-5cd2-3bd7-a025-1379e0ad9f5e" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/top-trump-organization-executive-reached-out-to-putin-aide-for-help-on-business-deal/2017/08/28/095aebac-8c16-11e7-84c0-02cc069f2c37_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_hp-breaking-news%3Apage%2Fbreaking-news-bar&amp;tid=a_breakingnews&amp;utm_term=.d9b3094fbe4d"> according to The Washington Post </a> , which cited a person familiar with the email. "Without getting into lengthy specifics, the communication between our two sides has stalled."

Cohen continued: "As this project is too important, I am hereby requesting your assistance. I respectfully request someone, preferably you, contact me so that I might discuss the specifics as well as arranging meetings with the appropriate individuals. I thank you in advance for your assistance and look forward to hearing from you soon."

Cohen <a id="df6a2603-7e5c-394a-a049-b0f67789fd2c" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-cohen-defends-contact-sater-peskov-russia-2017-9?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> told Vanity Fair </a> last year that the proposal from Sater was "business as usual and nothing more," describing it as "just another project, another licensing deal." He added that he had "really wanted to see this building go up, because the economics were fantastic."

Adding another layer to the story, <a id="5b257f87-4e03-327f-a797-0009376bbfda" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/felix-sater-confirms-trump-pursued-deal-with-sanctioned-russian-bank-2018-3?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> Sater told the MSNBC host Chris Hayes </a> in March that the Trump Organization was negotiating with a sanctioned Russian bank to secure financing for the building during the campaign.

The Trump Tower Moscow deal is among several events connected to Cohen that Mueller is known to be looking into as part of his investigation into Russia's election meddling.

NOW WATCH: <a id="554804a8-641b-3638-a6f7-6cdadbd1ac94" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/anthony-scaramucci-trump-press-economy-2018-11?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> Anthony Scaramucci claims Trump isn't a nationalist: 'He likes saying that because it irks these intellectual elitists' </a>

<ul><li> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/special-counsel-mueller-recommends-three-half-year-sentence-for-michael-cohen-2018-12?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest">Federal prosecutors recommend 'substantial' prison sentence for former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, saying he demonstrated a 'years-long pattern of deception'</a> </li><li> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-cohen-and-paul-manafort-legal-strategies-in-mueller-probe-black-roullette-2018-12?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest">While Michael Cohen cooperates with Mueller probe, Paul Manafort appears to be betting on a presidential pardon</a> </li><li> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mueller-flynn-sentencing-memo-takeaways-implications-2018-12?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest">Mueller sent a clear message — and a warning — with Flynn's sentencing memo</a> </li></ul>

Cohen's sentencing memo brings the spotlight back to Ivanka Trump's contacts with a Russian athlete who pitched a Trump-Putin meeting during the election

The special counsel Robert Mueller's office has told defense lawyers in recent weeks that it is "tying up loose ends" in the ongoing investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election and whether members of President Donald Trump's campaign colluded with Moscow, Yahoo News <a id="a15e03df-c614-31b7-a9f3-0d936a6f0a3e" href="https://news.yahoo.com/mueller-preparing-end-game-russia-investigation-225720798.html"> reported </a> .

The news is not entirely unexpected. Last month, CNN reported that the special counsel had <a id="8add5183-243e-3a6a-a8b3-f19d8a1106d9" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/robert-mueller-drafting-final-russia-investigation-report-2018-11?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> begun drafting his final report </a> in the Russia investigation.

And this week, prosecutors are set to file several court documents that could reveal major new details about three key players in the Russia investigation: former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.

All three men have pleaded guilty and have been cooperating with prosecutors.

Flynn has been working with Mueller's team since last December, after he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

In August, Cohen pleaded guilty as part of a separate Manhattan US attorney's office investigation, and he has since given over 70 hours of voluntary interviews to the special counsel. He also pleaded guilty in the Mueller investigation to one count of lying to Congress last week and his lawyers say he expects to cooperate further.

Manafort, meanwhile, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and obstruction in September and struck a plea deal with prosecutors to answer any and all questions they had about the Russia investigation and any other federal criminal inquiries.

But prosecutors revealed last month that Manafort <a id="e89b63b5-58d6-3e91-a908-d0b501ffe6ee" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/paul-manafort-new-accusations-plea-agreement-mueller-russia-probe-2018-11?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> had breached his plea </a> deal by allegedly lying to investigators and committing additional crimes since agreeing to cooperate.

Prosecutors were also reportedly furious when they learned that Manafort's team was briefing Trump's lawyers on everything he was being asked about after he agreed to cooperate.

<a id="bd5cb7d4-2837-395c-a3ef-c3b3bf86f24d" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/manafort-lawyers-still-in-touch-with-trump-team-cooperation-mueller-russia-2018-11?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> DOJ veterans told INSIDER </a> that they had never heard of a cooperator maintaining contact with the potential target of an investigation after striking a deal with prosecutors, and that such communications could tank a cooperation agreement.

Mueller's team is slated to submit a brief to the court on Friday about its claim that Manafort violated his plea agreement. The special counsel's office told Yahoo News that the Manafort memo "will be public," although some parts of it may be redacted or submitted under seal to protect the investigation.

But for the most part, prosecutors will spell out in detail the matters the former Trump campaign chairman misled them about, and their public disclosures could shed new light on where the Russia investigation stands.

The national-security experts at Lawfare <a id="2d94eb6b-51e6-3e93-a7f2-f7c62adb7ac9" href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/theres-lot-going-michael-cohens-sentencing-memo"> wrote </a> , moreover, that the public may also learn more "in the context of that briefing about the relationship Manafort appears to have maintained, through counsel, with the White House after his plea and cooperation agreement."

Cohen's lawyers, meanwhile, submitted a sentencing memo on his behalf last week that <a id="a092a245-919a-3600-a08d-e6c323de5214" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-cohen-sentencing-memo-raises-problems-for-trump-2018-12?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> contained a slew of bombshells </a> about Trump and his interactions with Cohen last year and before the 2016 election.

Among other things, his lawyers said that when Cohen was breaking campaign finance laws at Trump's direction before the election, Cohen was also keeping Trump "contemporaneously informed" of his actions.

They also said Cohen was "in close and regular contact" with Trump's lawyers and White House staffers while he was drafting false testimony to give to Congress last year about his involvement in the Trump Organization's effort to build a Trump Tower in Moscow during the election.

Cohen's sentencing is scheduled for December 12, and prosecutors are set to submit their own sentencing memo in his case on Friday. Lawfare saidit will be important to "see how they characterize Cohen's cooperation and to what extent they also urge leniency and on what points — if any — they dispute the picture of Cohen's cooperation that Cohen's lawyers have painted."

Flynn's sentencing hearing is scheduled for December 18, and prosecutors are slated to submit a sentencing memo for him on Tuesday.

It's unclear how much of it will be redacted, but because the nature of his cooperation has been shrouded in mystery since last year, it's likely that any new details that come out of the filing will help inform the public about where the Russia investigation is headed.

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Mueller is about to drop major new details about 3 of the most important players in the Russia probe

When the FBI raided Michael Cohen's property earlier this year and it surfaced that he was the target of a federal criminal investigation, Justice Department veterans warned that if he were to flip, he could be the most dangerous cooperating witness against President Donald Trump and his family.

This week, the special counsel Robert Mueller's office revealed a slice of just how much dirt Cohen may have on Trump in a charging document laying out how Cohen misled congressional investigators last year about the Trump Organization's effort to build a Trump Tower in Moscow during the 2016 election.

Cohen and Trump have known each other for years, and in addition to being Trump's personal lawyer, he was also his longtime fixer and served as the Trump Organization's lead attorney for a decade.

Prosecutors said Cohen, who pleaded guilty to one count of lying to Congress, misled lawmakers when he said negotiations for the Trump Tower Moscow deal ended in January 2016 and that he did not discuss it extensively with Trump Organization executives. They said Cohen did so "in hopes of limiting the ongoing Russia investigations."

These revelations don't just spell trouble for Trump. They've also cast the spotlight back on Donald Trump Jr., Trump's eldest son who is an executive vice president at the Trump Organization.

<h1> Trump Jr. misled the House Intelligence Committee, per source </h1>

When he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee last September, Trump Jr. told the panel he "wasn't involved" in the Trump Tower Moscow project and was only "peripherally aware" of it in 2016.

He also said he was not aware Cohen had reached out to the Russian government about the deal and indicated that Cohen's work with the Russian-born businessman Felix Sater on the project ended in 2015.

But prosecutors wrote that Cohen "discussed the status and progress of the Moscow Project" with Trump "on more than the three occasions Cohen claimed" to the Senate Intelligence Committee and that "he briefed family members" of Trump within the Trump Organization about it.

They also said Cohen admitted to pursuing the deal with Sater as late as June 2016, after Trump became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

After Cohen's plea deal was announced, Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that Cohen's plea "highlights concern over another issue – that we believe other witnesses were also untruthful before our committee."

A knowledgeable congressional source told INSIDER that Trump Jr. was one of the witnesses to whom Schiff was referring.

Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor from the Southern District of New York, told INSIDER the president's son "ought to be alarmed" by Cohen's plea deal. "We know Trump Jr. was questioned on the same topics that Michael Cohen has now been convicted of lying about."

It's unclear exactly what Trump Jr. told the House Intelligence Committee about the scrapped deal, because his interview took place in a closed-door session.

"The decision of whether to charge Trump Jr. with perjury is really going to come down to a question of precision," Honig said. "How clear is it that he misstated the truth? Did he leave himself enough wiggle room, and is his version of facts squarely contradicted by documents, emails, or other evidence showing his level of involvement?"

Honig added the caveat that Trump Jr. likely did not have the same level of involvement in the project as Cohen did. But, he added, "it's clear he did have some involvement at some time. So the key question is going to be, how much was Trump Jr. involved in, and how does that square off with the specifics of his testimony?"

Cohen has been cooperating with investigators since August, when he pleaded guilty to tax evasion, bank fraud, and campaign-finance violations in a separate Manhattan US attorney's office investigation into his and Trump's financial dealings before the election. His most recent sit-down with Mueller was last week.

<h1> You dont get a pass because your last name is Trump </h1>

Cohen's is the first guilty plea Mueller has secured that is directly connected to Trump's business dealings in Russia. And he is the first person Mueller has prosecuted for lying to Congress.

But DOJ veterans say that doesn't mean he'll be the last.

"There are certainly others at the Trump Organization that knew about this Russian overture," Jeffrey Cramer, a longtime former federal prosecutor in Chicago, told INSIDER. "If they knew about it and lied, either to Mueller or to Congress, there's no reason to think they'd be treated differently than Cohen. You don't get a pass because your last name is Trump."

If it emerges that Trump Jr. knew more than he was letting on about the deal and gave false testimony about it to congressional committees, "he or any other individual is now staring at the same fate Cohen is," Cramer said. "It brings home to those in the company who may have lied about the deal that their time could be coming sooner rather than later."

This isn't the first time Trump Jr.'s congressional testimony has come under the microscope.

Lawmakers also questioned the president's son about his involvement in a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between top campaign officials and two Russian lobbyists offering dirt on the Hillary Clinton campaign as "part of Russia and its government's support" for Trump's candidacy.

Trump and his lawyers have said he did not know about the meeting until after it was reported on last July. Trump Jr. told the Senate Judiciary Committee the same, saying he did not inform his father of the meeting prior to its occurrence.

But CNN, citing sources with knowledge of the matter, <a id="2a9e6300-3749-31ac-a017-8bdd5b669ddb" href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/26/politics/michael-cohen-donald-trump-june-2016-meeting-knowledge/index.html"> reported </a> in July that Cohen claims he was one of several people who were present when Trump Jr. informed Trump of the offer before the meeting. Cohen reportedly says that Trump greenlit the meeting after hearing about it from his son.

CNN and NBC News reported that Cohen does not have physical evidence — like a tape recording — to back up his claim but was willing to testify about it under oath to Mueller.

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Michael Cohen's plea deal poses a significant danger to Donald Trump Jr.

In a <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/5348237/Sentencing-Submission.pdf" id="293fc2a2-1bc7-3c86-ab4f-50b098da3b04"> sentencing memorandum </a> submitted this week, Michael Cohen's lawyers said he was "in close and regular contact" with President Donald Trump's lawyers and White House staff in the weeks leading up to his congressional testimony last year.

The detail was just one of several bombshell revelations Cohen's lawyers made in the memorandum, which they submitted after Cohen <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-cohen-reaches-new-plea-deal-with-mueller-report-2018-11?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest" id="0f121e4a-980e-3d2a-a500-47a5146245ba"> pleaded guilty </a> to one count of lying to Congress and formally began <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/legal-implications-mueller-plea-deal-michael-cohen-trump-russia-2018-11?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest" id="221bbbef-f1ef-305c-a12c-48b089ddd9c6"> cooperating </a> with the special counsel Robert Mueller this week.

Prosecutors said in a charging document that Cohen misled congressional investigators last year about the Trump Organization's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mueller-probes-michael-cohen-trump-tower-moscow-proposal-ukraine-peace-plan-2018-3?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest" id="51190133-fa79-3bf3-a954-2159d752093c"> effort to build a Trump Tower in Moscow </a> during the 2016 US presidential election.

They said Cohen lied when he said negotiations for the Trump Tower Moscow deal ended in January 2016 and that he did not discuss it extensively with Trump Organization executives. They added that Cohen gave false testimony "in hopes of limiting the ongoing Russia investigations."

<h1> Cohen was in regular contact with Trump's lawyers and the White House before he lied to Congress </h1>

In their sentencing memorandum, Cohen's lawyers said his false statements to Congress stemmed from his effort, "as a loyal ally and then-champion of Client-1, to support and advance Client-1's political messaging." Client-1 is believed to be Trump.

Cohen was the Trump Organization's lead attorney for a decade, until he left in 2017 to be Trump's personal lawyer. He was serving in that capacity when he was asked to appear before the House and Senate intelligence committees last year to testify in each panel's respective Russia investigation.

At the time, Cohen "followed daily the political messages that both Client-1 and his staff and supporters repeatedly and forcefully broadcast," his lawyers wrote. "Furthermore, in the weeks during which his then-counsel prepared his written response to the Congressional Committees, Michael remained in close and regular contact with White House-based staff and legal counsel to Client-1."

The president and his supporters have <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-falsely-accuses-mueller-said-pardon-for-paul-manafort-not-off-the-table-2018-11?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest" id="ef2d8634-c6fe-3edc-aa0e-18a9a944055b"> decried the Russia investigation </a> as a politically motivated "witch hunt" since its existence first became public knowledge last March. And while the White House initially applauded Mueller's appointment as special counsel last May, Trump quickly switched gears and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-tweets-attacks-mueller-russia-after-corsi-rejects-plea-2018-11?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest" id="1ccdc4d9-0f28-3915-acdb-c59f34a09f1f"> accused Mueller </a> and the FBI, without evidence, of catering to Democrats and having anti-Trump bias.

Cohen's lawyers wrote that based on Trump's political messaging and Cohen's regular contact with Trump's lawyers and White House staff, he was "fully aware of Client-1's repeated disavowals of commercial and political ties between himself and Russia, as well as the strongly voiced mantra of Client-1's that investigations of such ties were politically motivated and without evidentiary support."

They added that Cohen was also aware of Trump's specific "aim to dismiss and minimize the merit" of the Russia probe, as well as Trump's and his representatives' claim that all contacts with Russians by Trump, his campaign, or the Trump Organization had ended before the Iowa caucuses, which took place on February 1, 2016.

Cohen's lawyers wrote that in accordance with that knowledge, Cohen misrepresented the timeline of the Trump Tower Moscow deal to Congress and downplayed the extent of his communications with Trump about the deal. They added elsewhere in the memo that Cohen's false statements "arose from Michael’s fierce loyalty to Client-1" and that his "conduct was intended to benefit Client-1, in accordance with Client-1’s directives."

<h1> Cohen has cooperated with a mysterious 'separate open inquiry' </h1>

In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to charges related to tax evasion, bank fraud, and campaign-finance violations. The charges were part of a separate investigation, by prosecutors from the Southern District of New York, into Cohen's and Trump's financial dealings leading up to the 2016 election.

Cohen's lawyers wrote in the sentencing memorandum that he has voluntarily met twice with prosecutors in the Manhattan US attorney's office. He has also participated in seven voluntary meetings with Mueller's team and given over 70 hours of interviews to the special counsel. His first meeting with Mueller's office came shortly before Cohen pleaded guilty in the Manhattan US attorney's office investigation.

His most recent sit-down with Mueller was last week.

Cohen's lawyers added in the memorandum that he has also voluntarily met with representatives from the New York attorney general's office, which is currently investigating the Donald J. Trump Foundation, Trump, and his children.

The lawsuit, which was filed in June against Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, and the Trump Foundation, alleges "a pattern of persistent illegal conduct" for more than a decade.

Cohen's lawyers included another intriguing detail in their memo: in addition to cooperating with the investigation into the Trump Foundation, Cohen has also "provided the [New York attorney general's office] with documents concerning a separate open inquiry."

They did not elaborate on what that inquiry is.

WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 29: U.S. President Donald Trump walks toward a group of reporters to answer questions while departing the White House November 29, 2018 in Washington, DC. Trump answered numerous questions regarding his former attorney Michael Cohen's recent court appearance and testimony before departing for the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 29: U.S. President Donald Trump walks toward a group of reporters to answer questions while departing the White House November 29, 2018 in Washington, DC. Trump answered numerous questions regarding his former attorney Michael...

<h1> When he was breaking campaign-finance laws at Trump's direction, Cohen kept Trump 'contemporaneously informed' of his actions </h1>

When Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign-finance violations in August, he told prosecutors he acted at Trump's direction.

The charges stem from payments made shortly before the election to two women who claim to have had affairs with Trump, in exchange for their silence. Trump and his lawyers have repeatedly denied knowing anything about the payments and maintain that he did nothing wrong.

But in their sentencing memorandum, Cohen's lawyers wrote that Cohen kept Trump "contemporaneously informed and acted on [his] instructions" when it came to both the payments.

"Michael felt obligated to assist Client-1, on Client-1’s instruction, to attempt to prevent Woman-1 and Woman-2 from disseminating narratives that would adversely affect the Campaign and cause personal embarrassment to Client-1 and his family," Cohen's lawyers added.

Cohen broke campaign-finance laws for the same reason he lied to Congress, his lawyers said. "Both arose from Michael's fierce loyalty to Client-1. In each case, the conduct was intended to benefit Client-1, in accordance with Client-1's directives."

Cohen's lawyers said he is seeking an early sentencing date so he can begin rebuilding his life and look for new means to support his family. But they added that "this personal decision does not signal any intention on Michael's part to withhold information or his availability to respond to additional inquiry. To the contrary, he expects to cooperate further.

NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-nfl-league-usfl-sued-tweet-three-dollars-2017-9?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest" id="2a213334-ff2f-3acd-a5bf-cd85acedc4b5"> Trump once won a lawsuit against the NFL — but the result was an embarrassment </a>

<ul><li> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-has-been-charged-in-russia-investigation-mueller-trump-2017-12?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest">Here's everyone who has been charged and convicted in Mueller's Russia probe so far</a> </li><li> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-lawyers-contradict-stories-michael-cohen-trump-tower-moscow-2018-11?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest">Trump's team can't seem to get its story straight on whether Michael Cohen is a liar</a> </li><li> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-organization-putin-penthouse-trump-tower-moscow-2018-11?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest">The Trump Organization reportedly wanted to give Putin the penthouse in Trump Tower Moscow</a> </li></ul>

Michael Cohen's lawyers dropped a slew of intriguing bombshells about Trump in a new court filing

When it was pushing to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, the Trump Organization reportedly wanted to give Russian President Vladimir Putin the penthouse in the building.

According to <a id="3482cfd7-acb6-31de-a4a8-c6f61c0120cb" href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/anthonycormier/the-trump-organization-planned-to-give-vladimir-putin-the"> BuzzFeed News </a> , two law-enforcement officials said Michael Cohen, who was President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer at the time, discussed the idea with a spokesperson for Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s press secretary.

Cohen pleaded guilty on Thursday to one count of lying to Congress about his involvement in the Trump Tower Moscow project.

Cohen talked about the deal in a statement to the committee in September 2017 and expanded on it when he appeared before the panel the next month.

Many of the questions focused on Cohen's email exchanges about the deal with the Russian-born businessman Felix Sater, as well as whether Russia had any involvement in the Trump Organization's push to build the tower during the election.

Read more: <a id="f95b2139-3364-301d-aa11-18a284882352" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/legal-implications-mueller-plea-deal-michael-cohen-trump-russia-2018-11?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> Michael Cohen's latest plea deal shows Mueller's 'starting to finally get to the truth' behind Trump and Russia </a>

In a criminal information unsealed on Thursday, prosecutors wrote that Cohen knowingly misled investigators by giving a false timeline of when the project ended and how extensively he discussed it with others in the Trump Organization, including Donald Trump and his family members.

Prosecutors wrote that Cohen gave "the false impression that the Moscow Project ended before" the Iowa caucus, which took place on February 1, 2016, "in hopes of limiting the ongoing Russia investigations."

In fact, Cohen was in touch with Sater about the deal until as late as June 2016.

Cohen first got in touch with Peskov in January 2016, when he asked him for the Russian government’s help in pushing the deal through. Around January 20, Cohen got a response from a personal assistant to Peskov who said she had been trying to reach him and requested that he contact her using a Moscow phone number.

Shortly after, Cohen called the assistant and spoke to her for 20 minutes, the information says. After Cohen gave her details about the project and asked for help in pushing it forward, she said she would forward his request to others in Russia.

The next day, prosecutors said, Sater wrote to Cohen and asked to speak with him on the phone. "It's about [Putin] they called today," Sater said.

On Thursday, Sater told BuzzFeed he and Cohen thought giving Putin the penthouse would prompt other wealthy Russian buyers to scoop up apartments in the building.

"In Russia, the oligarchs would bend over backwards to live in the same building as Vladimir Putin," Sater said. "My idea was to give a $50 million penthouse to Putin and charge $250 million more for the rest of the units. All the oligarchs would line up to live in the same building as Putin."

The scrapped Trump Tower Moscow project is at the center of the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election. As part of the inquiry, Mueller is examining whether members of the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow to sway the race in Trump's favor.

News that the Trump Organization sought to establish direct financial ties to Putin at the height of the election will likely interest prosecutors who are, among other things, said to be looking into the motivation behind Trump's repeated deference to Russia and his willingness to trust Putin's word over that of his own intelligence agencies.

A source close to Trump's legal team confirmed to INSIDER on Thursday that he answered questions from Mueller related to the deal. And although Trump's lawyers branded Cohen a "liar" and said "we can't trust him," they said that Trump's version of events related to the project lined up with Cohen's.

NOW WATCH: <a id="db520c74-e29c-3064-aa8c-1a75075d6fc5" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lindsey-graham-holy-hell-attorney-general-jeff-sessions-mueller-donald-trump-2017-7?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> Lindsey Graham once warned there would be 'holy hell to pay' if Trump fired Jeff Sessions </a>

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The Trump Organization reportedly wanted to give Putin the penthouse in Trump Tower Moscow

President Donald Trump and his lawyers can't seem to get their story straight on whether his former lawyer and longtime fixer, Michael Cohen, is a liar.

On the one hand, they have repeatedly said Cohen cannot be trusted to tell the truth. On the other, they said Trump's story lines up with Cohen's as it relates to the Trump Organization's effort to build a Trump Tower in Moscow at the height of the 2016 election.

On Thursday, Cohen pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements to Congress about his involvement in the project.

Read more: <a id="f95b2139-3364-301d-aa11-18a284882352" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/legal-implications-mueller-plea-deal-michael-cohen-trump-russia-2018-11?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> Michael Cohen's latest plea deal shows Mueller's 'starting to finally get to the truth' behind Trump and Russia </a>

Prosecutors said Cohen knowingly misled congressional investigators when he said negotiations for the deal ended in January 2016 and that he did not discuss it extensively with Trump Organization executives, including Trump and his family members.

Trump unleashed a tirade against Cohen after his plea deal was announced, saying, "So very simply, Michael Cohen is lying."

Trump's lead defense lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, struck a similar tone.

"He has so many different versions of the same stories, so by definition he is a liar and we can't trust him," Giuliani said of Cohen. "He has lied, so how can we believe him?"

But at the same time, Giuliani <a id="9b36dacb-46b8-3a9b-add8-e9b2c99f5005" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/us/politics/trump-cohen-moscow-trump-tower.html"> told The New York Times </a> that Trump's story is the same as Cohen's when it comes to the Trump Tower Moscow deal.

The president knew about the deal and discussed it with Cohen before it fell apart, Trump's lawyers told The Times. "The president said there was a proposal, it was discussed with Cohen, there was a nonbinding letter of intent, and it didn't go beyond that," Giuliani said.

Prosecutors are said to have asked Trump about the defunct project in a series of questions that Mueller's office sent over to the president. Trump's lawyers sent back Trump's written answers to the questions last week.

A source close to Trump's legal team told INSIDER the president's lawyers were furious that Mueller waited to announce Cohen's plea deal until after he had secured Trump's written answers.

The source said Trump's lawyers believe the timing of the event indicates Mueller is trying to trap Trump into perjuring himself, by getting his answers first and then presenting him with evidence that contradicts what he said.

Jeffrey Cramer, a former longtime federal prosecutor who spent 12 years at the Department of Justice, weighed in on that argument.

"It's only a perjury trap if you lie," Cramer told INSIDER. "If you tell the truth, there's no question of a perjury trap. It's telling that everyone in Trump's orbit just seems to automatically assume he's going to lie if given the opportunity."

Prosecutors said in Cohen's charging document that he "discussed the status and progress of the Moscow Project" with Trump "on more than the three occasions Cohen claimed" to the Senate Intelligence Committee and that "he briefed family members" of Trump within the Trump Organization about it.

He was also discussing it with the Russian-born businessman Felix Sater as late as June 2016.

Trump does not face significant criminal liability based on the Trump Tower Moscow deal itself, because it isn't illegal for Americans to do business in Russia.

But Cohen's guilty plea is a confirmation that the president was not being truthful when he denied having any financial interests in Russia during the campaign. Later Thursday, BuzzFeed News dropped a bombshell report that said the Trump Organization wanted to give Russian President Vladimir Putin the $50 million penthouse in Trump Tower Moscow.

The development will likely be of keen interest to prosecutors as they examine Trump's long history of praising Russia and Putin and of siding with Russia against US intelligence agencies.

In other words, the problem for the president arises not from actions but from motive, said Jens David Ohlin, a vice dean at Cornell Law School who is an expert on criminal law.

"Not Cohen's motive, but Trump's motive for deferring to Russia over and over again," Ohlin told INSIDER. "The motive is money and business deals. This gives Mueller the last piece of the puzzle."

NOW WATCH: <a id="f5625ceb-ec49-3f6a-a36d-f9e73da7e615" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/megyn-kelly-santa-is-white-remark-fox-news-nbc-ignition-today-controversial-remarks-2017-11?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> Megyn Kelly in 2017: 'I regret a lot' of the controversial stuff I've said on live television </a>

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Trump's team can't seem to get its story straight on whether Michael Cohen is a liar

Prosecutors in the Russia investigation made one of their most consequential moves on Thursday when they announced that they had struck a plea deal with Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former longtime lawyer.

According to a criminal information against Cohen filed by the special counsel Robert Mueller's office, Cohen pleaded guilty to one count of lying to Congress about his Russia contacts last year.

Cohen also pleaded guilty earlier this year to tax evasion, bank fraud, and campaign-finance violations as part of a separate investigation by the Manhattan US attorney's office. He has been cooperating with that inquiry and the Mueller probe since August.

Mueller has already shown a willingness to prosecute witnesses who lie to the FBI, including Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser, George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign aide, and Rick Gates, the former deputy campaign chairman.

But Cohen's plea deal with Mueller marks the first time the special counsel has prosecuted someone for making false statements to Congress.

Read more : <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-cohen-reaches-new-plea-deal-with-mueller-report-2018-11?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest" id="e7ad1333-5885-3aa9-a936-1ba017d6d3f7"> Michael Cohen reaches a new plea deal with Mueller, and his dozens of hours of testimony could severely damage Trump </a>

<h1> 'You don't have to wait for Congress to bring any sort of contempt charge — Mueller will take care of that for them' </h1>

Cohen's false-statements charge centers primarily on claims he made about his involvement in the Trump Organization's push to build a Trump Tower in Moscow at the height of the campaign. Lawmakers on the House and Senate intelligence committees questioned Cohen extensively on the project last year, and Cohen expanded on it in statements he provided to both panels.

Prosecutors said Cohen knowingly misled congressional investigators when he said negotiations for the deal ended in January 2016 and that he did not discuss it extensively with Trump Organization executives.

They wrote that Cohen "discussed the status and progress of the Moscow Project" with Trump "on more than the three occasions Cohen claimed" to the Senate Intelligence Committee and that "he briefed family members" of Trump within the Trump Organization about it.

Cohen was also discussing it with the Russian-born businessman Felix Sater as late as June 2016, the document says.

Jeffrey Cramer, a longtime former federal prosecutor who spent 12 years at the Justice Department, didn't mince words when discussing the implications of the plea deal.

"There are certainly others at the Trump Organization that knew about this Russian overture," he told INSIDER. "If they knew about it and lied, either to Mueller or to Congress, there's no reason to think they'd be treated differently than Cohen. You don't get a pass because your last name is Trump."

Read more : <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-falsely-accuses-mueller-said-pardon-for-paul-manafort-not-off-the-table-2018-11?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest" id="77132885-f237-3046-aa7f-d8ed7430c8a3"> Trump falsely accuses Mueller of coercing people to 'flip and lie' and suggests he may pardon Manafort </a>

If, for instance, Cohen briefed Donald Trump Jr. — a key adviser in the Trump Organization — about the now defunct Trump Tower Moscow project, and if Trump Jr. gave false testimony about it to congressional committees, "he or any other individual is now staring at the same fate Cohen is," Cramer said.

"It brings home to those in the company who may have lied about the deal that their time could be coming sooner rather than later," he added. "And it could also endanger people who have potentially lied about other things."

The longtime GOP strategist Roger Stone has been in Mueller's crosshairs for months over his murky links to the radical pro-transparency group WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, as well as the Russia-linked hacker Guccifer 2.0.

In addition to investigating whether Stone had any advance knowledge of Russia's hack of the Democratic National Committee and WikiLeaks' plans to disseminate stolen emails, Mueller is also looking into whether Stone perjured himself before the House Intelligence Committee last year when discussing his connections to WikiLeaks and Russia.

Where Cohen and Stone are concerned, "there's no doubt that potentially lying to Congress falls within Mueller's purview, because we're talking about Russian interference in the election," Cramer said.

"Today's plea deal has certainly shown that anyone who has lied to Congress before about the Russia probe, you don't have to wait for Congress to bring any sort of contempt charge — Mueller will take care of that for them," he added.

<h1> 'This gives Mueller the last piece of the puzzle' </h1>

Jens David Ohlin, a former vice dean at Cornell Law School who's an expert in criminal law, cautioned that it was unlikely that the special counsel would put someone on trial for lying to Congress.

"In this case, though, the charge flows from a plea deal with Cohen," Ohlin told INSIDER. "It's the easiest way of getting it on the record that Trump still had business dealings with Russia during the campaign. Yes, others could be charged with lying to Congress as well, but prosecutors usually rely on a charge of lying to the FBI as a first option."

But Cohen's guilty plea is a confirmation that the president was not being truthful when he denied having any financial interests in Russia during the campaign. It could also help prosecutors shed light on Trump's long history of praising Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and of siding with Russia against US intelligence agencies.

In other words, the problem for the president arises not from actions, but from motive, Ohlin said.

"Not Cohen's motive, but Trump's motive for deferring to Russia over and over again," he added. "The motive is money and business deals. This gives Mueller the last piece of the puzzle."

<h1> Mueller may be 'starting to finally get to the truth' </h1>

The Cohen plea deal also adds new context to previously reported meetings and business dealings between Trump associates and Russia-linked individuals.

Prosecutors said in Cohen's charging document that in addition to traveling to Russia to discuss getting the Russian government's backing for the Trump Tower Moscow deal, Cohen also asked Trump and a "senior campaign official" about the possibility of Trump himself going to Russia for business.

In May 2016, the filing said, Sater told Cohen he "had a chat with Moscow" and asked whether Trump's trip to Moscow should happen before or after the Republican National Convention in July. Cohen responded that he would head to Russia before the convention, and Trump would go after.

Over the next few days, Cohen and Sater discussed an invitation to Cohen from a Russian official — believed to be Dmitry Peskov, an aide to Putin — to attend the St. Petersburg Forum in June, at which the official said he would introduce him to Putin or Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

Sater said the official told him "anything you want to discuss including dates and subjects" were on the table, according to the filing.

From June 9 to 14, Sater sent Cohen information about the event and travel, but Cohen met with Sater in the lobby of Trump Tower on June 14 and told him he would not go to Russia after all, the document says.

Around the same time, however, other Trump campaign officials were arranging a separate meeting with two Russian lobbyists offering dirt on Hillary Clinton's campaign. Trump Jr. — along with Paul Manafort, then the campaign chairman, and Jared Kushner, a senior adviser — met the lobbyists at Trump Tower on June 9.

Trump Jr. initially said the meeting had nothing to do with campaign business, but it later emerged that the meeting was pitched to him as "part of Russia and its government's support" for Trump's candidacy.

<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/11/papadopouloss-russia-ties-still-interest-fbi-schiff/576895/" id="79498482-ad6e-3048-a6a6-98857620530f"> The Atlantic reported late Thursday </a> that federal investigators were probing a letter in which someone who used to be close to Papadopoulos claimed he told them he was pursuing a lucrative Russian business deal on behalf of himself and Trump that would yield "large financial gains" for them.

The letter, which was sent last week to Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, says Papadopoulos made the disclosure in December 2016, shortly after Trump won the election, according to The Atlantic.

"Cohen's guilty plea raises questions about a lot of these things that happened during and right after the election that we wouldn't normally have thought would be related," Cramer said.

A hallmark of most investigations, he said, is that "when you get closer to the end, all these different data points that may have seemed unrelated become connected later on."

"When you start to see corroboration from two people who didn't intersect, as far as plea deals and the time period, and the same facts," Cramer said, "that tells you as a prosecutor that you're starting to finally get to the truth."

NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lindsey-graham-holy-hell-attorney-general-jeff-sessions-mueller-donald-trump-2017-7?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest" id="db520c74-e29c-3064-aa8c-1a75075d6fc5"> Lindsey Graham once warned there would be 'holy hell to pay' if Trump fired Jeff Sessions </a>

Sonam Sheth

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