Mueller's office may be right, Buzzfeed's story may not be 'accurate,' but look at Cohen's plea

...it's hard to believe Cohen directed all of the contacts with Kremlin-connected individuals about the Trump Tower 'Moscow Project 'without Trump's knowledge. That's what makes the idea Trump directed his efforts believable. Mueller's own court documents confirm this.

Wired , from November:

Mueller’s office lays out how, in January 2016, Cohen contacted Putin’s longtime adviser and press secretary Dmitry Peskov, identified in court documents as “Russian Official 1,” for help with what the court filing calls the “Moscow Project.”

Cohen ended up speaking on the phone with Peskov’s personal assistant, referred to as "Assistant 1" in the documents, for 20 minutes. According to the court filing, “Cohen requested assistance in moving the project forward, both in securing land to build the proposed tower and financing the construction. Assistant 1 asked detailed questions and took notes, stating that she would follow up with others in Russia.”

Mueller is steadily moving even more information about the Trump Organization’s business dealings with Russia into public view.

Notably, Mueller says in the document that the talks continued into June 2016—the same month as the infamous and mysterious meeting at Trump Tower between Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort, and a number of Russians promising help to the campaign. Moreover, talks about the project continued for some time, long past the January 2016 end date that Cohen had told congressional investigators in August 2017.

The caution here is to not take the Mueller office denial of the Buzzfeed report as far as dismissing the possibility Trump was actually personally involved. Everything still points to the probability Trump knew what Cohen was doing.


Here's Cohen's plea agreement outlining his lies about contacts with Russian officials close to Putin about the Trump Tower Project in Moscow:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ilCRBy-eBZydtYbFOi5VrpmRRxATMdzo/view