Special counsel Robert Mueller is close to getting another long-time Donald Trump confidante to cooperate with federal investigators. On Friday, former Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort “flipped” and agreed to cooperate with the special counsel investigations into Russian election interference and obstruction of justice.
Also on Friday, Vanity Fair magazine’s Emily Jane Fox reported that former Trump Organization executive and “fixer” Michael Cohen is in talks to “flip” and cooperate.
“In recent weeks, it has also become common knowledge among close friends of Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney, that Cohen is talking to the Mueller team, according to people familiar with the situation,” she reported.
“The extent and purpose of those talks is not entirely clear. Last month, Cohen pleaded guilty to eight counts of tax evasion, lying to a bank, and campaign-finance violations,” she explained. “During his allocution in front of a packed courtroom, Cohen read carefully chosen words stating that Trump had directed him to make payments to two women who had alleged affairs with the then-candidate, implicating the president as his co-conspirator.”
The “remarkable reversal” has occurred because, “Cohen has now been squeezed financially, emotionally, and legally in a way he could not have imagined.”
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