In his Friday court filing, Robert Mueller revealed that Russia and the Trump campaign communicated as early as 2015, according to KATC .
Michael Cohen, then still serving as Donald Trump’s personal attorney, was speaking to Russians who wanted to contact the Trump campaign as early as 2015.
Prosecutors have recommended a “significant” prison term for Cohen, according to U.S. News & World Report .
Cohen has been working with Mueller’s team to provide information for the investigation. Mueller’s team is looking for links between Russia and the Trump campaign that show collusion between the two camps to influence the 2016 presidential election.
According to the filing, Cohen spoke to a Russian who said they were a “trusted person” in the Russian Federation. This person suggested that a meeting should take place between Donald Trump, then a candidate campaigning to be president, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
This person said the Trump campaign would receive “synergy on a government level” with Russia. The person Cohen spoke with was not named in the court documents.
How closely the Trump campaign and Russia worked together before, during and after the 2016 presidential election, is the main focus of the investigation and the burning question that everyone has been asking since Trump won on election night.
Since that night, a multitude of evidence linking the two entities has come to light. From a reported 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between multiple Trump campaign and family members and Russian agents, to the ongoing friendship between Presidents Putin and Trump, there are a lot of things that beg for answers.
It has been long believed that the Mueller investigation will finally provide those answers. Based on the court filings presented on Friday, the investigation has spent a lot of time and done a lot of digging to find those answers.
U.S. intelligence agencies have confirmed that Russian hackers and other Russian agents did influence the 2016 election through false news reports, a strong anti-Hillary Clinton social media campaign, and other means.
Now, it’s been confirmed that Russia contacted the Trump campaign as early as 2015. Through Michael Cohen’s testimony, it is also now known that he, at least, was still in contact with Russia as of 2016, after Donald Trump won the Republican primary and earned the right to move on to the general election to square off against Hillary Clinton.
Cohen was still speaking with Russia regarding Trump Tower Moscow, a real estate deal that was in the works before Trump’s presidential campaign. Apparently, this deal was still in the works during the campaign as well.
Multiple investigations into myriad issues relating to Donald Trump and Russia are currently underway. New York state is investigating potential money laundering between Russia and the Trump Organization, and the House Intelligence Committee is still planning on filing various subpoenas to call for testimony from those who were part of the Trump campaign.
As recently as last week, a deal between Mueller’s team and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort fell apart. According to a different court filing from Mueller, Manafort repeatedly lied to investigators and did not cooperate with them as promised through the terms of his deal.
Trump has since praised Manafort, and said that he is open to the possibility of pardoning him. Cohen, Trump has said, is a liar.