A significant development in the Mueller investigation today. The Associated Press is reporting:
“President Trump’s ex-lawyer, is making a surprise court appearance before a federal judge in New York.”
“He admitted to making false statements in 2017 to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence about a plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.”
This would mean Cohen had previously told Congress that discussion of a Trump Tower in Moscow ended before The first primaries in 2016. That was a lie. In fact discussions continued into 2017 and Cohen says Trump was involved in those discussions.
Michael Cohen, Pres Trump’s former personal attorney, reaches new plea deal with Mueller this morning. Expected to enter guilty plea for false statements to Congress coupled with dozens of hours of testimony potentially damaging to Pres Trump–Special Counsel values testimony.
— GeorgeStephanopoulos (@GStephanopoulos) November 29, 2018
The expected new guilty plea in Federal District Court marks the first time the office of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has charged Mr. Cohen. In exchange for pleading guilty and continuing to cooperate with Mr. Mueller, he may hope to receive a lighter sentence than he otherwise would.
The moves comes just two weeks before Mr. Cohen, 52, is scheduled to be sentenced for his earlier guilty plea. That case, which also included bank and tax crimes, was brought by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.
As part of his previous plea deal he is expected to spend between 3-5 years behind bars.
Cohen’s earlier plea deal with federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York implicated President Trump in campaign finance felonies. Since then, Cohen has spent more than 70 hours in interviews with Mueller’s team. The questioning has focused on contacts with Russians by Trump associates during the campaign, Trump’s business ties to Russia, obstruction of justice and talk of possible pardons, sources familiar with the discussions have told ABC News.
“The potential significance of Cohen’s cooperation is immense,” said Kendall Coffey, a former United States Attorney in Florida.
Read the plea documents from Michael Cohen https://t.co/NHnPxbXs0V
— Vox (@voxdotcom) November 29, 2018
It seems significant to re-share this tweet today.
Russia has never tried to use leverage over me. I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA – NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2017