The investigation into campaign finance violations by Michael Cohen and Donald Trump appears to be going strong based on new documents released Tuesday. Importantly, the portion of the FBI search warrants related to the hush money scheme that Cohen pleaded guilty to have been completely redacted, suggesting that information is still being tightly guarded.
Here's a few other notable revelations from the Cohen search warrants:
1. Shortly after being appointed, Special Counsel Robert Mueller started investigating Cohen's email accounts as early as July 2017, and he scrutinized emails dating back to January 2016 (and perhaps as early as June 2015). Cohen's premises were not searched until April 2018, so that means the special counsel had been monitoring Cohen's dealings for quite a while before executing a search warrant.
2. Mueller only handed off portions of the Cohen probe to the Southern District of New York, not everything. As one document notes, the special counsel's office had "referred certain aspects of their investigation into Cohen to the [U.S. Attorneys Office]."
3. There's an interesting redaction related to Cohen receiving payments to Essential Consulting from Columbus Nova, an American investment management firm affiliated with Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg. Vekselberg, who had many points of contact with Trump associates (Cohen, Michael Flynn, Wilbur Ross), was detained at a New York-area airport in May 2018 and questioned by Mueller.
Cohen was never charged with acting as an unregistered foreign agent, but the documents show Mueller was probing that aspect of his dealings, as well as money laundering, with which he was also never charged.
4. Finally, the feds examination of Cohen was, well, extensive.