Michael Cohen gets a plea deal with Robert Mueller
Post# of 65629
Tonight's Sentences was written by Stavros Agorakis.
TOP NEWS
Cohen and Mueller make a deal
• On Thursday, former Trump attorney and fixer Michael Cohen admitted to lying to Congress about continuing talks with Russia to build a real estate project in Moscow at the same time that Donald Trump was running for president. [NYT / Benjamin Weiser, Ben Protess, Maggie Haberman, and Michael S. Schmidt]
• Cohen's statement is part of a new plea deal he cut with special counsel Robert Mueller, who is looking into Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 election. [Vox / Andrew Prokop]
• This is the first time "Trump Tower Moscow" has been tied to Mueller's probe. The revelation is potentially significant because it shows Trump was involved in business negotiations with the Kremlin at the same time as Russian spies hacked the email servers of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee, an action that may have helped get him elected. [CNN / Kara Scannell, Pamela Brown, Erica Orden, and Stephen Collinson]
• Shortly after Cohen's plea deal was announced in court, the New York Times reported that Trump's written responses to Mueller last week about attempts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow during the campaign lined up with Cohen's remarks, according to the president's lawyers. [NYT / Maggie Haberman and Michael S. Schmidt]
• Cohen previously pleaded guilty to tax fraud, bank fraud, and campaign finance charges, but not until Thursday did he agree to cooperate with Mueller's investigation. The court filing, though, shows Cohen first meeting Mueller's team in August, before he pleaded guilty to those first charges. [Forbes / Kelly Phillips Erb]
• There's evidence that at least 26 high-level Trump advisers and campaign operatives were aware of contacts with Russia-linked operatives during the candidate's 2016 campaign and his transition.
According to a report, Trump's team has made more than 92 contacts with Russia-linked operatives to discuss and collaborate on issues ranging from election meddling to business deals, despite blanket denials by all involved that they had relations with the Russians. [The Moscow Project]
• Cohen is the 33rd person Mueller has charged in connection to the Russia probe. FiveThirtyEight makes a case for why he's the most important one. [FiveThirtyEight / Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux]