Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office made 14 referrals for investigation of "potential criminal activity" that fell outside the scope of its investigation into allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials, as well as potential obstruction of justice by the Trump administration.
Among those referred for criminal investigation were Michael Cohen, Trump's onetime personal attorney, and Gregory Craig, a former White House counsel under President Barack Obama. The other 12 referrals were redacted, citing "Harm to Ongoing Matter."
Cohen was sentenced in December 2018 to three years in prison after pleading guilty to campaign finance violations, tax evasion and lying to Congress about Trump’s past business dealings in Russia. In his plea, Cohen said he arranged "hush money" payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal in the final days of the 2016 presidential campaign "at the direction" of then-candidate Trump.
Mueller's report noted that Trump's conduct toward Cohen changed from praise to castigation after Cohen began cooperating with prosecutors following an FBI raid on his home, office and hotel room in April 2018. The report said the evidence could "support an inference that the president used inducements in the form of positive messages in an effort to get Cohen not to cooperate, and then turned to attacks and intimidation to deter the provision of information or undermine Cohen's credibility once Cohen began cooperating."
Cohen is scheduled to report to prison next month, though his legal team has claimed he is still sorting through documents that might be of interest to Democratic lawmakers investigating the president. Cohen's attorneys have also said that they are holding out hope that federal prosecutors in New York will not only back another delay in the start of his prison term, but also would agree to reopen his case and advocate for a lighter sentence.
On Thursday, Cohen's attorney, Lanny Davis, tweeted that Cohen "knows and can fill in the bulk of the redactions" in the Mueller report. Cohen concurred, tweeting: "Soon I will be ready to address the American people again...tell it all...and tell it myself!"
Craig was indicted last week on two counts of making false statements and concealing information from investigators regarding his work for former Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych. Craig, 74, has pleaded not guilty and called the prosecution "unprecedented and unjustified."
The case against Craig intersected with the Mueller probe because former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was involved in the financing of a report Craig authored in 2012 for the Yanukovych government that sought to legitimize its prosecution of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
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Manafort was convicted last year by a federal jury in Virginia on eight counts of bank and tax fraud and was sentenced to 47 months in prison. He subsequently pleaded guilty to two felony conspiracy charges related to his overseas lobbying work with Ukraine and was sentenced to 73 months in prison by a D.C. federal judge. Manafort's former deputy Rick Gates pleaded guilty last year to one count of conspiracy against the U.S. and one count of making false statements to FBI agents and cooperated with prosecutors against Manafort.
All told, Mueller charged 34 people, including Manafort and Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and three Russian companies. Twenty-five Russians were indicted on charges related to election interference, accused either of hacking Democratic email accounts during the campaign or of orchestrating a social media campaign that spread disinformation on the internet.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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