Tag: Synergy

The Trump campaign was offered “political synergy” from Russia as early as 2015, according to evidence provided by the president’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. In one of two sentencing documents filed by prosecutors in relation to Cohen, who has pleaded guilty to two separate charges, prosecutors revealed the 52-year-old said he was contacted by someone claiming to represent the Russian authorities. “In or around November 2015, Cohen received the contact information for, and spoke with, a Russian national who claimed to be a ‘trusted person’ in the Russian Federation who could offer the campaign ‘political synergy’ and ‘synergy on a government level’,” said a filing by special counsel Robert Mueller. The document filed by Mr Mueller suggests that Cohen has provided substantial information to the special counsel’s office. Mr Mueller said Cohen went to “significant lengths” to assist their investigation. Mr Mueller said Mr Cohen had assisted in four specific areas – providing information about his own contacts with Russian interests during the campaign, providing information concerning certain “discrete Russia-related matters” core to the investigation, giving information concerning his contacts with persons connected to the White House during the 2017–2018 time period and describing the circumstances of preparing and circulating his response to the congressional enquiries. In a separate document filed by investigators looking into Cohen’s payment of hush money to Stormy Daniels and other women on the eve of the 2016 election, prosecutors said the lawyer had not been cooperative and deserved to serve a “substantial amount of jail time”. “Cohen did provide information to law enforcement, including information that assisted the special counsel’s office (SCO) in ongoing matters, as described in the SCO’s memorandum to the court, and the office agrees that this is a factor to be considered by the court,” wrote prosecutors in New York. “But Cohen’s description of those efforts is overstated in some respects and incomplete in others. For these reasons, the office respectfully requests that this court impose a substantial term of imprisonment.” Trump, who has called Mueller’s investigation a “witch hunt“ and repeatedly denied wrongdoing, said earlier this week that Cohen had lied about Trump’s business dealings in Russia to get reduced jail time.