Plea Deal Beginning to Look Like Exoneration

For Trump, Cohen Plea Deal Is Beginning to Look a Lot Like Exoneration - Real Clear Investigations

Contrary to media speculation that Robert Mueller is closing in on President Trump, the special prosecutor's plea deal with Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen offers further evidence that the Trump campaign did not collude with Russians during the 2016 election, according to congressional investigators and former prosecutors.

On page 7 of the statement of criminal information filed against Cohen, Mueller mentions that Cohen tried to email Russian President Vladimir Putin's office on Jan. 14, 2016, and again on Jan. 16, 2016. But Mueller, who personally signed the document, omitted the fact that Cohen did not have any direct points of contact at the Kremlin, and had resorted to sending the emails to a general press mailbox. Sources who have seen these additional emails point out that this omitted information undercuts the idea of a "back channel" and thus the special counsel's collusion case.

Page 2 of the same criminal information document holds additional exculpatory evidence for Trump, sources say. It quotes an August 2017 letter from Cohen to the Senate intelligence committee in which he states that Trump "was never in contact with anyone about this [Moscow Project] proposal other than me." This section of Cohen's written testimony, unlike other parts, is not disputed as false by Mueller, which sources say means prosecutors have tested its veracity through corroborating sources and found it to be accurate.

Former federal prosecutors said Mueller's filing does not remotely incriminate the president in purported Russia collusion. It doesn't even imply he directed Cohen to lie to Congress. "It doesn't implicate President Trump in any way," said former independent counsel Solomon L. Wisenberg, now with Nelson Mullins LLP in Washington. "The reality is, this is a nothing-burger."