Search warrants tied to former Trump lawyer Cohen released

Months before the FBI raided Michael Cohen’s office and hotel room, investigators were examining the flow of foreign money into his bank accounts and looking into whether the funds might be connected to a plan to lift Russian sanctions, according to court filings unsealed today.

The five search warrant applications, made in the early weeks and months of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation in 2017, were made public in response to requests from The Associated Press and other media organizations.

The warrants shed further light on how the longtime Trump fixer, who this month began a three-year prison sentence, tried to financially capitalize on his closeness to the president. The newly unsealed material doesn’t reveal further information about Trump’s own role in the crimes that put Cohen in prison.

The documents provide more detail about the early stages of Mueller’s investigation as agents and prosecutors examined whether any Trump campaign aides had conspired with Russia to sway the outcome of the 2016 election. At the time, Cohen was Trump’s personal lawyer and a close aide and confidant.

The warrant applications cover requests to search his email accounts, including one associated with the Trump Organization. Representatives for Cohen declined to comment Wednesday.

The documents show how investigators by the summer of 2017 had zeroed in on bank accounts for Essential Consultants, LLC, the company that Cohen formed and used to make hush-money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels, who has said she had a sexual relationship with Trump a decade before the election.

— AP