Of all Trump’s allies to cooperate with the special counsel’s investigation, perhaps the most interesting was Michael Cohen, the president’s personal lawyer. Fierce loyalty to Trump was long what defined Cohen, who considered himself more fixer and protector than legal adviser.
But as investigators dove into Cohen’s personal finances—finding criminal tax and bank fraud that could subject him to significant prison time—Trump’s fixer turned into another problem for the president. Cohen ultimately pleaded guilty in multiple cases—one in which he agreed to facilitating hush-money payments to help the president cover up alleged affairs, and another in which he admitted lying to Congress about a possible Trump business project in Moscow. He began cooperating with the special counsel’s team.
Cohen’s lie to Congress, detailed in this criminal information, was remarkable. It showed he had been willing to deceive the public—and then commit a crime—to keep secret the timing of his dealings with the Kremlin. Cohen admitted that he had told Congress work on the Moscow project ended in January 2016—in fact, it lasted until June 2016, after Trump had sealed up the Republican nomination for president. Cohen also conceded he had direct contact with a Kremlin official to request help with the project, speaking by phone to an assistant to Dmitry Peskov, a powerful Putin aide. The document indicates the assistant took notes and promised she would follow up with others in Russia. Peskov has said Russian officials gave it routine business consideration.
The document described Trump as “Individual 1” and the Trump Organization as a “Manhattan-based real estate company.”
The special counsel’s office would reveal in a later court filing that Cohen met with its investigators seven times and provided information “on core topics under investigation” that was deemed “credible and consistent with other evidence.” Prosecutors wrote that they believed the motive for his lying to Congress was to “minimize links” between the Moscow project and Trump.
That was worrisome for Trump. Cohen, one of Trump’s closest confidants, was talking frequently to the office investigating Trump. And while he might have been able to attack Cohen’s credibility—Cohen, after all, was an admitted liar—the special counsel’s office had cryptically hinted they had evidence to back up what the president’s fixer was saying.