U.S. Department of Justice
Attorney Work Product // May Contain Material Protected Under Fed. R. Crim. P. 6(e)
dismiss the idea of a substantial connection between Trump and Russia.[1] Cohen said that he discussed the talking points with Trump but that he did not explicitly tell Trump he thought they were untrue because Trump already knew they were untrue.[2] Cohen thought it was important to say the deal was done in January 2016, rather than acknowledge that talks continued in May and June 2016, because it limited the period when candidate Trump could be alleged to have a relationship with Russia to an early point in the campaign, before Trump had become the party's presumptive nominee.[3]
- 3. Cohen Submits False Statements to Congress Minimizing the Trump Tower Moscow Project in Accordance with the Party Line
In early May 2017, Cohen received requests from Congress to provide testimony and documents in connection with congressional investigations of Russian interference in the 2016 election.[4] At that time, Cohen understood Congress's interest in him to be focused on the allegations in the Steele reporting concerning a meeting Cohen allegedly had with Russian officials in Prague during the campaign.[5] Cohen had never traveled to Prague and was not concerned about those allegations, which he believed were provably false.[6] On May 18, 2017, Cohen met with the President to discuss the request from Congress, and the President instructed Cohen that he should cooperate because there was nothing there.[7]
Cohen eventually entered into a joint defense agreement (JDA) with the President and other individuals who were part of the Russia investigation.[8] In the months leading up to his congressional testimony, Cohen frequently spoke with the President's personal counsel.[9] Cohen
- ↑ Cohen 9/18/18 302, at 5–6.
- ↑ Cohen 9/18/18 302, at 6.
- ↑ Cohen 9/12/18 302, at 10.
- ↑ P-SCO-000000328 (5/9/17 Letter, HPSCI to Cohen); P-SCO-000000331 (5/12/17 Letter, SSCI to Cohen).
- ↑ Cohen 11/20/18 302, at 2–3.
- ↑ Cohen 11/20/18 302, at 2–3.
- ↑ Cohen 11/12/18 302, at 2; Cohen 11/20/19 302, at 3.
- ↑ Cohen 11/12/18 302, at 2.
- ↑ Cohen 11/12/18 302, at 2–3; Cohen 11/20/18, at 2–6. Cohen told investigators about his conversations with the President's personal counsel after waiving any privilege of his own and after this Office advised his counsel not to provide any communications that would be covered by any other privilege, including communications protected by a joint defense or common interest privilege. As a result, most of what Cohen told us about his conversations with the President's personal counsel concerned what Cohen had communicated to the President's personal counsel, and not what was said in response. Cohen described certain statements made by the President's personal counsel, however, that are set forth in this section. Cohen and his counsel were better positioned than this Office to evaluate whether any privilege protected those statements because they had knowledge of the scope of their joint defense agreement and access to privileged communications that may have provided context for evaluating the statements they shared. After interviewing Cohen about these matters, we asked the President's personal counsel if he wished to provide information to us about his conversations with Cohen related to Cohen's congressional testimony about
139
