Cohen’s records public
The feds have made public nearly 900 pages of court papers tied to their investigation of Michael Cohen on Tuesday — but not before redacting a trove of information about his admitted campaign-finance violations on behalf of President Trump.
The documents, made public in response to a petition from The Post and other media organizations, included lengthy FBI applications to target the locations of Cohen’s cellphones and search his e-mail accounts, electronic devices, office, home and hotel room — triggering the April 9 raids on Cohen.
The paperwork revealed that special counsel Robert Mueller began investigating Trump’s former personal lawyer and “fixer” no later than July 2017, and that the FBI found he was $22 million in debt over the purchase of 32 taxi medallions that plunged in value from $1 million each to around $200,000 due to competition from Uber and Lyft.
While renegotiating payments on those loans, Cohen hid the fact that he raked in more than $3 million in shady consulting fees following Trump’s election, including nearly $600,000 from an investment firm with ties to since-sanctioned Russian oligarch Viktor Veksleberg, the papers say.
But Manhattan federal Judge William Pauley III let prosecutors hide details of the Cohen-arranged hush payoffs to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, resulting in redactions of up to 19 consecutive pages.