Michael Cohen’s OSC (Mueller) sentencing memo

Cohen went to “significant lengths” to assist OSC. The “information he has provided has been credible and consistent with other evidence obtained in the SCO’s ongoing investigation.” Mueller is confident he knows when people are lying; so he must have the whole story.

“Cohen provided the SCO with useful information concerning certain discrete Russia-related matters core to its investigation.” Core to the investigation=Trump Russia. Where did Cohen get the info? from “regular contacts with Company executives during the campaign.”

Without being prompted, Cohen corrected false statements about “his outreach to and contact with Russian officials during the course of the campaign.” This means Cohen reached out to, and had contact with Russian officials during the campaign (Popularly known as ‘collusion’).

One example: In a radio interview in 2015, Cohen suggested that Trump and Putin meet. Later, Cohen claimed that his public comments had been spontaneous and had not been discussed within the campaign or the Company [Trump Org].

Cohen admitted to the OSC that this was a lie and that, in fact, he conferred with Trump about contacting the Russian government before reaching out to gauge Russia’s interest in such a meeting. There you have it: Trump reaching out to Russians in 2015.

Cohen also admitted that he worked on the Trump Tower Moscow project and discussed it with Trump well into the campaign. The “Moscow Project was a lucrative business opportunity that sought, and likely required, the assistance of the Russian government.”

From the memo: “If the project was completed, the Trump Org would receive hundreds of millions of dollars from Russian sources in licensing fees and other revenues.” Straight from Mueller: During the campaign, Trump was looking for the Russians to make him personally rich.

Also from the Memo: Negotiation for the Moscow Project “occurred at a time of sustained effort by the Russian government to interfere with the U.S. presidential election.” So while the Russians were attacking us, Trump was looking for them to make him rich.

What else did Cohen give the OSC? “He provided useful information concerning his contacts with persons connected to the White House during 2017-2018.” How were these contacts useful? The memo doesn’t say.

A Russian national who claimed to be a “trusted person” in the Russian federation offered the political campaign “political synergy” and “synergy on a government level.” Cohen didn’t follow up. But isn’t that exactly what ultimately happened between Russia & the campaign?

Cohen also “described the circumstances of preparing and circulating his response to the Congressional inquiries, while continuing to accept responsibility for the false statement contained within it.” Does that mean they coordinated answers?

Reading both the SDNY memo and this one, here’s what is striking: https://twitter.com/Teri_Kanefield/status/1071283983948730370 …SDNY is not happy with Cohen and wants in prison. Mueller, on the other hand, is very happy with Cohen’s cooperation.

It looks like Cohen went to Mueller and spilled everything about TrumpRussia. But he held back with the SDNY b/c he didn’t want to put himself in more jeopardy. Presumably disclosing all his activity would have been riskier for him than going forward without an agreement.

Remember the stories last spring about how Cohen was angry at not getting a plum job in the Trump administration? https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/09/us/politics/michael-cohen-shell-company.html …The SDNY memo confirms that Cohen expected a powerful job. Seems he was angry not to get one. Hell hath no fury like a criminal scorned.