The information revealed in Michael Cohen's plea agreement, which became public Thursday, was the first ever connection to President Donald Trump and business with the Russian government.
Mueller's "criminal information" filing outlines conversations between Cohen and real estate developer Felix Sater and Russian officials for the Trump Tower Moscow project. The deal never happened, but negotiations continued for significantly longer than what Trump told Americans. It's still unclear if the president lied under oath to Mueller about it, Bloomberg News wrote in an assessment.
“We’re seeing financial motives and financial entanglements with a foreign power who interfered in our elections,” the site quoted former federal prosecutor Mimi Rocah.
Trump initially said that if Mueller began examining his financial dealings that he'd be crossing a "red line." Today Americans learned the red line was not only crossed but likely crossed a long time ago. To make matters worse for Trump, Mueller will likely continue to go much further over the that "red line."
Cohen noted that he briefed Trump at least four times and family members as well -- even talking about a trip to Moscow.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev invited Cohen to St. Petersburg for a possible meeting with President Vladimir Putin the day after Trump won the Indiana primary and looked to become the official GOP nominee. His statement doesn't outline why Cohen was pulled off of the project in June 2016, but the Washington Post reported June 14 that the Russian government hackers breached the Democratic National Committee and obtained opposition research documents on Trump. Cohen lied to the Senate Intelligence Committee about all of this when called for questioning.
While it doesn't prove a conspiracy with Russia itself, it opens up the question about why Trump was lying from the beginning about it. If nothing improper happened, why was everyone associated with it lying?
"The walls are crumbling down on top of them from so many different directions," Rocah said.
Adding these new facts into the Trump timeline presents even more questions. At the same time Cohen was working on a St. Petersburg trip, convicted advisor George Papadopoulos got an email from a Russian contact noting they were "open for cooperation" and wanted to meet Trump.
June 9 was the infamous Trump Tower meeting with the Russian lawyer who claimed she had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The trip to Russia Cohen was trying to work out was called off the next day.
In July, however, Carter Page traveled to Moscow for a speech where be briefly spoke to Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich. He then had a meeting with the head of investor relations for a Russian oil giant.
Cohen's lawyer announced Thursday that he's cooperated and "will continue to cooperate" with the special council's office, indicating Mueller might have more questions. However, Dec. 12 will be the day the judge intends to sentence the former Trump "fixer." That could indicate Mueller may already have whatever he needs, Bloomberg noted.
Meanwhile, the list of guilty pleas continues to grow.
