Cohen has spoken repeatedly with special counsel

WASHINGTON — Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, has been interviewed repeatedly in the past month by prosecutors in the special counsel investigation into whether the Trump campaign conspired with Russian operatives, according to two people with knowledge of the sessions.

The interviews, first reported by ABC News, are a further indication of the progress by the special counsel, Robert Mueller, in gathering firsthand accounts from some of the president’s closest advisers both before he ran for president and during the campaign. Last week, Paul Manafort, the president’s former campaign chairman, agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s inquiry as part of a plea agreement to reduce criminal charges stemming from his political consulting work in Ukraine.

Cohen pleaded guilty last month to eight felonies and implicated the president in payments to silence two women whose claims of affairs with Trump might have damaged his presidential hopes. Although his plea agreement did not specifically call for cooperation, Cohen had long intimated that he would assist Mueller’s inquiry if asked.

ABC News reported that Cohen was questioned about Trump’s business dealings in Russia, possible connections between his campaign and Russian intermediaries, and whether the president or anyone speaking on his behalf discussed the possibility of a pardon with Cohen.

It is unclear what information Cohen might hold that could prove useful to Mueller. But he knows about many aspects of Trump’s business empire.

In late 2015, he had a series of email exchanges with Felix Sater, a Russian-born businessman and business associate of Trump’s, about efforts to develop a Trump Tower in Moscow. In an email to Cohen, Sater boasted that the tower would help Trump’s political fortunes.

“I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected,” he wrote, referring to President Vladimir Putin of Russia. Cohen later emailed a Russian government official hoping to jump-start the project, which never materialized.

In January 2017, after Trump was elected, Cohen met with a Russian oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg, at Trump Tower in Manhattan and at an inauguration event in Washington. A company connected to Vekselberg, who has close ties to the Kremlin, awarded Cohen a $1 million consulting contract, funneling the money to a shell company of Cohen’s.

Lanny Davis, a lawyer acting as an adviser to Cohen, declined to comment. Davis said “no inference” should be drawn from his lack of comment.

Under the sentencing guidelines cited in the plea agreement, Cohen faces a maximum of between five and six years in prison for income tax evasion, false statements to a financial institution and campaign finance violations. His sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 12.

Mueller’s office originally referred his case to federal prosecutors in New York, apparently because the allegations against the president’s longtime fixer fell outside the special counsel’s mandate. But if Cohen provides substantial assistance to the Russia investigation or any criminal inquiry, prosecutors might agree to tell the sentencing judge that he deserves a lighter punishment.

Cohen admitted in court that during the campaign, Trump directed him to arrange payments to an adult film star and a former Playboy model to keep them from speaking publicly about their affairs with him. The payments violated campaign finance laws that govern corporate and personal contributions.

One payment was to Stephanie Clifford, the pornographic actress better known as Stormy Daniels, who was given $130,000 in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. Prosecutors said that to reimburse Cohen for the payment, executives from the Trump Organization allowed him to file false invoices that listed it as a legal expense.

The arrangements for the other payment, to Karen McDougal, the former Playboy model, were more complex, and involved a tabloid buying the rights to her story and then killing it.

Cohen turned against the president only after months of pressure from federal authorities, who were investigating Cohen’s businesses and his financial dealings with banks and tax authorities. His guilty plea infuriated Trump, who said giving information to prosecutors in return for lesser charges “almost ought to be outlawed.”

His questioning comes during a spurt of activity from the special counsel’s office. Besides securing Manafort’s guilty plea to conspiracy charges and agreement to cooperate with their investigation, prosecutors wound up a case against George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign aide who was sentenced this month to 14 days in prison for lying to federal authorities.

They also asked to schedule the sentencing of Michael T. Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, for late this year.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Cohen has spoken repeatedly with special counsel

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