A Russian offered to help Trump in 2015, reveal prosecutors
US prosecutors have revealed that a Russian offered cooperation to Donald Trump’s campaign as early as 2015, declaring that the president’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen had provided “relevant” and “substantial” help to the Russia meddling investigation.
In a separate case, federal prosecutors on Friday demanded “substantial” jail time of between four to five years for Cohen for bank fraud and campaign finance violations to which he plead guilty in August.
US attorney Robert Khuzami accused Cohen, who once vowed to take a bullet for the president, of being motivated by “personal greed” and of “repeatedly” using his power and influence for “deceptive ends”.
“Totally clears the President. Thank you!” tweeted the US president cryptically as television networks were consumed by the Cohen documents - which the White House dismissed as revealing “nothing of value”.
Robert Mueller, the special counsel heading up the probe
NEW YORK:
into Russian meddling in the 2016 vote, followed up with a separate filing saying Cohen had made “substantial and significant efforts to remediate his misconduct, accept responsibility for his actions, and assist” the special investigation, a thorn in Trump’s side.
Cohen continued to provide “relevant and truthful information” to assist the probe, holding seven sessions with investigators, “many of them lengthy, and continues to make himself available to investigators,” it said.