By July 18, 2017, Mueller Had Probable Cause Michael Cohen Was an Unregistered Foreign Agent
SDNY has released the warrants behind his April 9 raid, which are here. They actually include a series of warrants, showing how first Mueller got warrants, then handed parts of the investigation over to SDNY, which then obtained its own warrants tied to the crimes they were investigating. These two affidavits (one, two) are the ones showing that hand-off — basically SDNY asking, on February 28, 2018, for access to email accounts and storage devices that Mueller had already accessed. The second one describes Mueller’s first warrant on Cohen to be dated July 18, 2017.
The same affidavit describes the crimes listed in the earlier warrants. Among those crimes — unsurprisingly — was conspiracy to defraud the US. More surprising, however, are 18 USC §§ 951 (acting as an unregistered foreign agent) and 611 (FARA).
The latter may be tied to Cohen’s work with a Kazakhstan bank (BTA Bank) and Korean airspace company (Korea Aerospace Industries) — which were basically his efforts to monetize his ties to Trump after the election. These were the deals that Republicans made such a big deal about when Cohen testified to the Oversight Committee.
In addition, Cohen was working for Columbus Nova, which was ultimately controlled by Victor Vekselberg. That would be of immediate concern for the question of Russian influence.
The 951 charge, however, is more interesting. It could relate to the same thing (basically arguing that because he was working for instrumentalities of foreign countries, he was their agent — basically a “soft” spy). Or it could relate to his efforts to negotiate a Trump Tower deal for Trump. Note that the November 13 warrant basically extended the first warrant back to June 1, 2015, which would we know would cover the Trump Tower deal (and precede any tie to BTA or KAI).
951 is a charge I always suspected might be used with Paul Manafort (it still might), or even Jared Kushner. But it appears that Mueller’s worries about Trump’s closest associates acting as spies wasn’t limited to Manafort and Flynn, but extended, too, to his personal lawyer. And Mueller already had evidence of that fact by July 18, 2017.
As I disclosed last July, I provided information to the FBI on issues related to the Mueller investigation, so I’m going to include disclosure statements on Mueller investigation posts from here on out. I will include the disclosure whether or not the stuff I shared with the FBI pertains to the subject of the post.
It looks like the “Cohen MDCPC Account” was [email protected]. See
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/3_12_18_Letter.pdf
Yeah, and mdcpc.com is a 1&1 domain, which matches the third warrant. Was that set up simply because Cohen left the Family Business and started operating under his own company name, or because he wanted a provider based outside the US? Or both? [Given that 1&1 has US operations, it didn’t prevent a warrant taking effect.]
Wild Ass Guess: MDCPC = Michael Dean Cohen Personal Corporation ?
Professional Corporation.
The official domain creation date in WHOIS is 2017-03-20, which fits with the warrant footnote, but the historical data goes back about 20 years (as you’d expect for a five-letter dot-com) and I can’t imagine it having lapsed. Wonder how much he paid for it, and whether that was part of the “tech services” payments?
Bingo. And yes, some domain squatter probably bought that up and got a pretty penny when some guy with the initials MDC needed a new domain. Wish it woulda been me.
Damn, I just checked, grifterinchief.com is parked. Wonder what GOTUS will pay to keep that from becoming a hot property?
Thanks for the start. I trust you will keep us advised.
The corruption revelations are going to spread and engulf both parties’ establishments.
Generational change is going to look pretty good by June.
That’s my thought as well. The rot shows no party boundaries. I am almost embarrassed to be a Boomer (’51) though some of us still have some decency and can still learn.
It might, but I should observe that the Rethugs welcome the money while the Ds push the offenders out the door (i.e. William Jefferson of LA with the “cold” cash). It’s how Kaiser Quisling’s palace operates as well, pay to play. Let’s see how the madam works out for Mar A Lago.
Put your both-siderism on the shelf with your Chris Cilizza bobblehead. Especially now there is no doubt the party of corruption putting its own power before American values is the GOP. Look at how they used the Russian data in their campaigns which is why McTurtle and LyinRyan didn’t stop anything and why Matt Gaetz (a known beneficiary of Soviet dirt) is still trying to derail the process.
Point well taken. Thanks.
this is just absolute crap.
corruption is a historic part of politics, but there can be no reasonable comparison yielding a judgement of equality between the profound corruption of the republican party of the last 10 years and the democratic party of the same time frame.
nor does the dumb-assed generations naming game have anything to do with the choice of a democratic candidate. have you forgotten the recent use of this inane argument against nancy pelosi? do you understand that without someone of pelosi’s experience as speaker, the democrats in the house would be falling all over each other right now in a civil war?
Oh! I can back you on this one.
Every time I see this ‘both sides’ argument, I reply with the facts. It might get repetitive, but they keep coming back with both sides, so I am going to keep replying with the facts. Starting with Nixon, the number of administration or campaign memebers convicted:
Democrats: 2
Republicans : 95
And Trump will add to that number.
There is a third side, the Washington lawyers and lobbyists. It is that side that is going pollute the public mind with an anti-Washington bias. Lets find out. The public does not like Washington as it is.
much of the public does not care about nor understand politics very well. this has been true since 1786.
as it happens, ignorance and cynicism make for poor citizens but excellent targets for manipulation by demagogic populist politicians – the more ignorant and cynical the more gullible, as is the case with much of trump’s hardcore support. for these folk trump the carnival barker presents the image of the straightshooting politician. in this deception it should be understood that trump is not an aberration in the republican party, he is the apotheosis of the modern day republican politician, knowingly manipulative of the ignorant and cynical and ignorant and cynical himself.
just for the record, the ignorant and cynical citizen is not a characteristic that adheres to a particular party like republican. we are all susceptible.
nor is that characteristic limited to american or european voters.
the democratic majority in the house of representatives recently passed a bill to improve citizen knowledge about where money in politics comes from and to make eligible voter access to the voting process easier. as things go in politics this seems like a reasonable if imperfect action on which the house democrats placed a high priority.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/us/politics/house-democrats-anticorruption-voting-rights.html
If the true art of politics is the ability to persuade your opponents to compromise, it seems that the Russians have advanced the technique.
love this
Is there anything spelling out concerns about evidence being destroyed by Cohen?
I’m curious if there is any hint as to what, if anything, prosecutors were worried might go missing.
Good question, given that we know SDNY said they did have concerns when they were fighting over privilege.
It’s possible there were concerns that formed part of the hush payment stuff. Those remain the biggest redacted sections.
Thanks, hopefully we’ll find out more.
I’m very interested in getting the story someday about when the Trump camp started thinking things were going sour and how they reacted. Preferably from a better historian than Bob Woodward.
I’m really hoping that Marcy is going to write a book explaining all this to those of us who don’t always follow/understand all the intricacies of national security and the law after this is all over.
One can only hope that other miscreants who have yet to be charged had search warrants approved for their email accounts in the same time frame.
I trust that any number of the inner circle are filling prescriptions for Zantac about now.
Yes, and Xanax. Probably lots and lots of Xanax.
ah! now we are getting down to the nitty-gritty of the trump russian caper. screw this implausible, lame excuse of naive americans being taken by the clever russian prez and his military intelligence and hyperrich operatives:
“… The 951 charge, however, is more interesting. It could relate to the same thing (basically arguing that because he was working for instrumentalities of foreign countries, he was their agent — basically a “soft” spy). Or it could relate to his efforts to negotiate a Trump Tower deal for Trump. Note that the November 13 warrant basically extended the first warrant back to June 1, 2015, which would know would cover the Trump Tower deal (and precede any tie to BTA or KAI).
951 is a charge I always suspected might be used with Paul Manafort (it still might), or even Jared Kushner. But it appears that Mueller’s worries about Trump’s closest associates acting as spies wasn’t limited to Manafort and Flynn, but extended, too, to his personal lawyer. And Mueller already had evidence of that fact by July 18, 2017…”
the entire presidential campaign spies-for-russia ring has been rolled up, as the saying goes, by the mueller, sdny investigations.
now it’s time to charge the lot – trump, manafort, stone, cohen, sater, donald trump, jr, butina’s boyfriend erikson and nra pals. who have i left out?
951 might do the job.
Broidy. I’d like to see what Mueller has as far as communications tying Trump to the Broidy playmate payoff/abortion deal. Drump-Russia is great, but I don’t think it will influence his base. They will simply fake-news it away. But an abortion may actually cost Drump some votes with the evangelicals.
You’re kidding. Nothing trump does is too far for the evangelicals. It ain’t about “religion.”
I could rape a 13 year old in the middle of 5th Avenue and not lose voters. The Pedophile President.
Katie Johnson. Hope they find payments to her in Cohens files. THAT would be endgame. my instinct says they will bury it. Who and in what city was the lawyer who handled that. I would send copies of the complaint to the evangelical mailing list.
I think we have to recognize that a certain percentage of his base will never waiver in their devotion to him. What is plausible is that a solid majority of the country (Democrats, Republicans, Independents, etc.) will see the truth and push for a reckoning.
Eric Prince.
Don’t ever forget that fucker. He’s as rotten as they come.
Boy Jared, Corsi, the Stone Man and, possibly VP Dense.
Bannon, Javanka, Rudy Tuti?
tangential, via big orange:
MSNBC’s Pete Williams reported this morning that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will not be leaving the Justice Department imminently, as planned, but will be staying “a little longer.”
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/3/19/1843343/-Deputy-Attorney-General-Rod-Rosenstein-to-stay-in-his-post-a-little-longer
Punaise, might you have some appropriate lyrics for the song “Stay”, by Maurice Williams, et al?
Enjoying your word talents as a reprieve from the seriousness of the times, thank you.
*now taking requests*
love it! I’ll have to get familiar with that song…
Well okay then, Punaise. This is one one hell of a challenge, should you choose to undertake it. But, no harm, no foul if you just leave it as it is.
American Pie, Don McLean.
Two youtubes, but you have to remove a word from the links.
https:// http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAsV5-Hv-7U
https:// http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsZFiMo8TIc
[Sorry, VG, the word inserted in the links kicked on the automoderation. Removed to clear for publication. /~Rayne]
my comment is awaiting moderation. What rules did I break? Just looking for guidance, not meant to be gauntlets are drawn kinda thing.
Good prompt, indeed! On the lookout for the right opportunity.
“drove my cheville to the (pont)-levis, but the (pont)-levis was de raille”
Thanks Rayne. Obviously I was trying to change the links so that the you tubes didn’t play full screen here, but still had the info needed to find the you tubes. Is the formatting you used the correct way to do this? That probably sounds like a dumb question, but I thought that what I did was okay, based on previous advice from others. I don’t think that the word I inserted (American) triggered auto-mod, but rather, where I put it. Maybe the formatting rules have changed, or I got them wrong. Guidance appreciated, for future attempts. IOW, halp!
I’ll do something like add a space somewhere in the URL, preferably near the front end.
Thanks PJ. I’ll do that.
https://twitter.com/kpolantz/status/1108093240337674240
[quote] Mueller’s top appellate lawyer Michael Dreeben tells judge he can’t respond to @washingtonpost request to unseal Paul Manafort court docs because he and co-counsel “FACE A PRESS OF OTHER WORK” this week [end quote]
*
hmmmmm….
*
added: … ahhhh
https://twitter.com/Matthew_Shadle/status/1108100814554447872 1:19 PM – 19 Mar 2019
*
[quote] Dreeben is involved in the mystery foreign company subpoena case, which goes before the Supreme Court on Friday. [end quote]
in terms of siege warfare i think it is reasonable to conclude that president trump has finally overrun the u.s. dept of justice. trump began his seige of the department and the fbi as soon as he became president, probably due to a briefing he had received on jan 6, 2017 about the conclusions of the intelligence community’s investigation of the putin-led russian intervention in the 2016 presidential election (combined with his knowledge of his own complicity).
the siege began with the attempted power seduction of fbi director comey and continued up to the 2018 congressional elections. the trump/nunez twitter-HSCI assault was the battering ram. the relentless two-year presidential-congressional assault and the surrender of AG jeff sessions, who had effectively protected the doj/fbi investigation of the russian intervention and the trump collusion that magnified it, allowed barr to march thru senatorial approval, and thence thru the doj portcullis to assume command of the russia-cum-trump investigation.
is barr really a trump man? just how much more time to act do the office of special counsel and the doj’s southern district of new york have? will traditionally weak-kneed new york state or manhatten prosecutors actually tackle presidential/campaign lawlessness?
just for the record, the ignorant and cynical citizen is not a characteristic that adheres to a particular party like republican. we are all susceptible.
nor is that characteristic limited to american or european voters.