U.S. Department of Justice
Attorney Work Product // May Contain Material Protected Under Fed. R. Crim. P. 6(e)
with the President before he ran for office.[1] This Office did not investigate Cohen's campaign-period payments to women.[2] However, those events, as described here, are potentially relevant to the President's and his personal counsel's interactions with Cohen as a witness who later began to cooperate with the government.
On February 13, 2018, Cohen released a statement to news organizations that stated, "In a private transaction in 2016, I used my own personal funds to facilitate a payment of $130,000 to [the woman]. Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with [the woman], and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly."[3] In congressional testimony on February 27, 2019, Cohen testified that he had discussed what to say about the payment with the President and that the President had directed Cohen to say that the President "was not knowledgeable . . . of [Cohen's] actions" in making the payment.[4] On February 19, 2018, the day after the New York Times wrote a detailed story attributing the payment to Cohen and describing Cohen as the President's "fixer," Cohen received a text message from the President's personal counsel that stated, "Client says thanks for what you do."[5]
On April 9, 2018, FBI agents working with the U.S, Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York executed search warrants on Cohen's home, hotel room, and office.[6] That day, the President spoke to reporters and said that he had "just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys—a good man."[7] The President called the searches "a real disgrace" and said, "It's an attack on our country, in a true sense. It's an attack on what we all
- ↑ See, e.g., Michael Rothfeld & Joe Palazzolo, Trump Lawyer Arranged $130,000 Payment for Adult-Film Star's Silence, Wall Street Journal (Jan, 12, 2018).
- ↑ The Office was authorized to investigate Cohen's establishment and use of Essential Consultants LLC, which Cohen created to facilitate the $130,000 payment during the campaign, based on evidence that the entity received funds from Russian-backed entities. Cohen's use of Essential Consultants to facilitate the $130,000 payment to the woman during the campaign was part of the Office's referral of certain Cohen-related matters to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.
- ↑ See, e.g., Mark Berman, Longtime Trump attorney says he made $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels with his money, Washington Post (Feb. 14, 2018).
- ↑ Hearing on Issues Related to Trump Organization Before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, 116th Cong. (Feb. 27, 2019) (CQ Cong. Transcripts, at 147–148) (testimony of Michael Cohen). Toll records show that Cohen was connected to a White House phone number for approximately five minutes on January 19, 2018, and for approximately seven minutes on January 30, 2018, and that Cohen called Melania Trump's cell phone several times between January 26, 2018, and January 30, 2018. Call Records of Michael Cohen.
- ↑ 9/19/18 Text Message, President's personal counsel to Cohen; see Jim Rutenberg et al., Tools of Trump's Fixer: Payouts, Intimidation and the Tabloids, New York Times (Feb. 18, 2018).
- ↑ Gov't Opp. to Def. Mot. for Temp. Restraining Order, In the Matter of Search Warrants Executed on April 9, 2018, 18-mj-3161 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 13, 2018), Doc. 1 ("On April 9, 2018, agents from the New York field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation . . . executed search warrants for Michael Cohen's residence, hotel room, office, safety deposit box, and electronic devices.").
- ↑ Remarks by President Trump Before Meeting with Senior Military Leadership, White House (Apr. 9, 2018).
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