Records offer details of Cohen probe
WASHINGTON – Federal authorities began investigating President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, in mid-2017 and suggested their inquiry into crimes he said were ordered by the president remains incomplete, according to court documents unsealed Tuesday.
In hundreds of pages of search warrant applications, the Justice Department said it began examining Cohen’s emails in July 2017 as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. That means federal agents were scrutinizing one of Trump’s associates far earlier than they had disclosed.
In 2018, agents obtained a raft of court orders authorizing them to search Cohen’s hotel room, office and electronics for evidence of tax and bank fraud, as well as information about what prosecutors said were illegal payments during Trump’s campaign to silence two women who claimed to have had sex with him. Prosecutors said they were investigating a possible conspiracy but didn’t elaborate.
The warrant materials released Tuesday offer the clearest window yet into the early stages of an investigation of one of Trump’s closest aides, his personal attorney and problem solver. In one justification for the searches, authorities said they were searching for evidence of false bank statements, wire fraud, bank fraud and illegal campaign contributions and “conspiracy as it pertains to the other subject offenses.”
Equally revealing were the details prosecutors and a court agreed could remain secret: In one document, laying out details of what prosecutors called “the illegal campaign contribution scheme,” authorities blacked out 18 pages of detail, an indicator that the investigation remains incomplete.
Prosecutors had said they opposed making all of the warrant materials public because doing so “would jeopardize an ongoing investigation and prejudice the privacy rights of uncharged third parties.”
In outlining their requests for information, prosecutors noted the need to keep the inquiry secret, asserting that “premature public disclosure of this affidavit or the requested warrants could alert (Cohen) … causing him to destroy evidence, flee from prosecution or otherwise seriously jeopardize the investigation.”
The FBI obtained a search warrant for Cohen’s Gmail account July 18, 2017, and weeks later obtained another for his Apple iCloud account. The searches, conducted as part of the Russia investigation, sought documents dating to 2015.
Mueller’s office turned part of its investigation of Cohen over to federal prosecutors in early 2018. Months later, the FBI raided his hotel room and office, seizing troves of documents.
As that inquiry went forward, Mueller examined Cohen over statements he made to Congress about a lucrative real estate development in Moscow that would have required the approval of the Russian government. Cohen acknowledged that he lied to lawmakers to hide the fact that Trump’s business pursued the deal until he had effectively secured the Republican nomination.