Federal authorities sought warrants to investigate Michael Cohen's email accounts in July 2017, nine months before the office and hotel room of U.S. President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer were raided, according to documents made public on Tuesday.
Emails were sought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office, which is probing Russia's role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as the FBI, according to the documents.
The documents, totaling several hundred pages, were released after U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan on Monday ordered federal prosecutors to make redacted versions public, in response to requests by various news media organizations.
Ex-Trump lawyer Cohen's emails were sought in mid-2017 -filings
Federal authorities sought warrants to investigate Michael Cohen's email accounts in July 2017, nine months before the office and hotel room of U.S. President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer were raided, according to documents made public on Tuesday.
Emails were sought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office, which is probing Russia's role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as the FBI, according to the documents.
The documents, totaling several hundred pages, were released after U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan on Monday ordered federal prosecutors to make redacted versions public, in response to requests by various news media organizations.
The April 2018 raids on Cohen's office and hotel room were part of an investigation that eventually led Cohen to plead guilty to campaign finance crimes, in connection with the payment of hush money to silence women who claimed to have had sexual relationships with Trump.
Cohen was sentenced in December to serve three years in prison. Since pleading guilty, he has publicly turned on Trump, telling a U.S. House of Representatives committee last month that his former boss was a "con man" and "cheat."
Trump has denied having the sexual relationships, and said his campaign did not collude with Russia. Moscow has denied meddling in the 2016 election.