WASHINGTON — Newly unsealed court records show special counsel Robert Mueller knew by the end of 2017 that President Donald Trump had been writing checks that year to his former lawyer Michael Cohen totaling more than $280,000 — months before FBI agents raided Cohen's home and offices in April 2018.
A federal judge in Washington, DC, unsealed five search warrant applications on Wednesday that Mueller's office filed in 2017 seeking access to email accounts tied to Cohen (see below). The documents shed light on just how much information Mueller had gathered on Cohen by the end of that year. The special counsel's office didn't pursue charges against Cohen related to his finances, however; they referred out that investigation to federal prosecutors in Manhattan.
What isn't clear is whether Mueller knew why Trump was writing checks to Cohen when his office listed the payments in two November 2017 applications. News reports, court records, and statements from Cohen and Trump's own legal team would later confirm that the president reimbursed Cohen for a payment he arranged in the months before the 2016 election to stop adult film star Stormy Daniels from going public with claims that she had an affair with Trump. Cohen pleaded guilty last year to campaign finance violations in connection with that payment as well as hush money paid to former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal.
When FBI agents executed search warrants on Cohen's home and office in April 2018, the public learned for the first time that Mueller's office had referred information about Cohen to federal prosecutors in New York to pursue. At the time, it wasn't known what exactly the special counsel's office gave the Manhattan prosecutors, or when. Based on the documents unsealed Wednesday, Mueller's office had evidence of the Trump payments before making the referral to their New York counterparts.
The 2017 search warrant applications — which Chief Judge Beryl Howell agreed to unseal after a group of news outlets petitioned the court — show the special counsel's office was exploring hundreds of thousands of dollars Cohen received from domestic and foreign corporate entities, and whether he'd been acting illegally as a foreign agent and working with companies trying to lobby the Trump administration. A search warrant application filed by Mueller's office in July 2017 and two applications filed in August 2017 didn't mention the Trump checks.
In the November 2017 applications, the government told the judge that they'd obtained records from an unnamed bank that showed an account was opened under Cohen's wife's name around March 2017. Records from that financial institution and a second unnamed bank showed Cohen had received at least seven checks from Trump totaling $280,000 since February. Cohen endorsed the checks over to his wife, who deposited them in the account in her name, according to the FBI agent who signed the affidavit.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetillman/documents-mueller-knew-trump-cohen-checks-2017
A federal judge in Washington, DC, unsealed five search warrant applications on Wednesday that Mueller's office filed in 2017 seeking access to email accounts tied to Cohen (see below). The documents shed light on just how much information Mueller had gathered on Cohen by the end of that year. The special counsel's office didn't pursue charges against Cohen related to his finances, however; they referred out that investigation to federal prosecutors in Manhattan.
What isn't clear is whether Mueller knew why Trump was writing checks to Cohen when his office listed the payments in two November 2017 applications. News reports, court records, and statements from Cohen and Trump's own legal team would later confirm that the president reimbursed Cohen for a payment he arranged in the months before the 2016 election to stop adult film star Stormy Daniels from going public with claims that she had an affair with Trump. Cohen pleaded guilty last year to campaign finance violations in connection with that payment as well as hush money paid to former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal.
When FBI agents executed search warrants on Cohen's home and office in April 2018, the public learned for the first time that Mueller's office had referred information about Cohen to federal prosecutors in New York to pursue. At the time, it wasn't known what exactly the special counsel's office gave the Manhattan prosecutors, or when. Based on the documents unsealed Wednesday, Mueller's office had evidence of the Trump payments before making the referral to their New York counterparts.
The 2017 search warrant applications — which Chief Judge Beryl Howell agreed to unseal after a group of news outlets petitioned the court — show the special counsel's office was exploring hundreds of thousands of dollars Cohen received from domestic and foreign corporate entities, and whether he'd been acting illegally as a foreign agent and working with companies trying to lobby the Trump administration. A search warrant application filed by Mueller's office in July 2017 and two applications filed in August 2017 didn't mention the Trump checks.
In the November 2017 applications, the government told the judge that they'd obtained records from an unnamed bank that showed an account was opened under Cohen's wife's name around March 2017. Records from that financial institution and a second unnamed bank showed Cohen had received at least seven checks from Trump totaling $280,000 since February. Cohen endorsed the checks over to his wife, who deposited them in the account in her name, according to the FBI agent who signed the affidavit.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetillman/documents-mueller-knew-trump-cohen-checks-2017
