March 19, 2019: Trump Personal Lawyer Under Intense Investigation

 

3/19/19: Today, President Trump received a double dose of bad news. First, he learned that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, his nemesis at the DOJ, would not be stepping down “for a little longer.” 

Second, he had fresh insights which indicated where the Mueller investigation might be headed. 

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“A veritable smorgasbord of criminal conduct.” 

Judge William H. Pauley III

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Once again Mueller’s team reveals that they already have far more evidence than pundits on cable news can ever guess. Only now do we learn that the first search warrant, asking for Michael Cohen’s emails (dating to January 1, 2016), was filed on July 18, 2017. Two more warrants followed, one for cloud backup files on his phone, the other for emails dating to June 2015. 

We know that Mr. Cohen is going to jail for what Judge William H. Pauley III has called “a veritable smorgasbord of criminal conduct.” But these filings hint that Trump’s old lawyer wasn’t the only one sitting down at the meal. We now know, for example, that F.B.I. agents received permission to collect “historical location data for two AT&T cellphones, from October 1 to November 8, 2016. This could be highly important, because there have been rumors Cohen traveled to Prague sometime before the election and met with Russian hackers to discuss how to cover up ties to the Trump campaign. 

In all, the court filings total 895 pages, often duplicated in multiple applications for search warrants. But when we come to page 38, we find a section 18 ½ pages long, headed “The Illegal Campaign Contribution Scheme.” This entire section is redacted. What crimes and accomplices are listed beneath those pages, we cannot know. But in Trump World there has to be intense fear.

 

The court records include a number of clues. In early 2018 we learn Cohen and his wife took a three month rental on Room 1728, an expensive suite at the Loews Regency Hotel in New York. Authorities decided to include a search of that suite in a fresh warrant. Agents made it clear they were after two cellphones they had been tracking, using a “triggerfish” device, and believed would be found at the hotel. These phones they believed would contain evidence of “bank fraud,” “wire fraud,” “illegal campaign contributions” and “conspiracy as it pertains to other Subject Offenses.” 

Most of the 895 pages relate to crimes committed by Cohen. Still, the depth and detail of information prosecutors have assembled must terrify any Trump aides or family members who may have committed crimes of their own—and that could be just about every other Trump aide and family member, save Barron, that we know. We learn, for example, that “on or about October 26, 2016, Cohen opened a new bank account for Essential Consulting L.L. C., ostensibly to allow him to operate a real estate investment consulting firm. On January 31, 2017, Cohen’s account received the first of seven checks totaling $583.332.98 from a holding company controlled by Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian national, and based in Switzerland. 

That’s right. Throw another Russian into the mix!

 

Even before they raided Cohen home, office and hotel investigators probably had him dead to rights. They knew Cohen used “encrypted communications applications,” including, “but not limited to, WhatsApp, Signal and Dust.” On page 81 of the filings, even the name of the F.B.I. Special Agent involved is redacted. Another section is redacted after an agent claims “there is probable cause to believe that Subject Premises-3 [Cohen’s offices] will contain evidence of the Bank Fraud Offenses.” 

In a warrant application filed on February 28, 2018, a judge agreed to a grant of a “non-disclosure order” for a search of an email account owned by Mr. Cohen. The Court ruled that if the search was revealed it might lead to “destruction of or tampering with evidence or flight from prosecution, or otherwise…seriously jeopardize an ongoing investigation.” Therefore, the warrant should not be disclosed for up to 180 days, “subject to extension” if required. 

The last warrant was issued on April 7, 2018, for permission to search “A Device containing the Results of Three Email Searches.” But that line was crossed out and replaced by hand with “Three Electronic Devices.” An agent, name and title redacted again, explained that based on “conversations with witnesses” and reviews of other testimonies he or she was asking to expand the search, in particular because “there is probable cause to believe that the Subject Devices contain evidence of violations” of federal statutes related to “illegal campaign contributions.”

 

Another warrant, this one to obtain information from Cohen’s cellphones, notes: 

Cellphone service providers have technical capabilities that allow them to collect at least two kinds of information about the locations of cellphones to which they provide service (a) precision location information, also known as E-911 Phase II Data, or latitude-longitude data, and (b) cell site data, also known as ‘tower/face’ or ‘tower/sector’ information.”

 

Then, a few pages later, a seventeen page section is redacted once more. In fact, in one section we learn that “Michael Cohen, a lawyer who holds himself out as the personal attorney of President Donald J. Trump” is under investigation for “violation of the campaign finance laws.” 

Then we have this:

 

Page with redactions.

 

We can’t read between the lines because there are no lines to read. We can guess that the name of the President of the United States may be currently hidden from view.