Special Counsel Robert Mueller's sentencing recommendation memo, released Friday, details the ways in which Michael Cohen provided substantive and provable information pertinent to the investigation into Trump campaign coordination with Russia.
Days after Trump’s victory, his spokeswoman Hope Hicks asserted that there had been no contacts of any kind of Trump associates and Russia.
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Prosecutors wrote that around November 2015, “Cohen received the contact information for, and spoke with, a Russian national who claimed to be a ‘trusted person’ in the Russian Federation who could offer the campaign ‘political synergy’ and ‘synergy on a government level.’
They said Cohen told prosecutors that the Russian repeatedly suggested arranging a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump, in part as a way of helping Cohen advance plans to build a Trump real estate project in Moscow.
“The person told Cohen that such a meeting could have a ‘phenomenal’ impact ‘not only in political but in a business dimension as well,’ referring to the Moscow Project, because there is ‘no bigger warranty in any project than consent of [the President of Russia],’” prosecutors wrote.
The new information about Cohen is particularly significant because it came in the campaign’s early months and because prosecutors said the Russian national claimed to have interest in helping Trump’s campaign, as well as his business.
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Prosecutors wrote that Cohen had been an early advocate of a meeting between candidate Trump and Putin. In a September 2015 radio interview, Cohen had suggested that Trump meet with the Russian president while he was in New York to attend the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. Prosecutors said that Cohen later claimed the comments were spur of the moment, but he has admitted in recent weeks that he conferred with Trump about reaching out to the Russian government.
The fall 2015 contact came at an important time in the campaign. As Trump’s candidacy was starting to heat up, Putin appeared to grow more interested in his effort. On Dec. 17, 2015, Putin attracted notice by offering words of praise for the celebrity mogul, calling him “colorful and talented” and the “absolute leader of the presidential race.” Trump returned the compliment the next day calling Putin “a leader, unlike what we have in this country.”