President Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen "remained in close and regular contact with White House-based staff and legal counsel," his lawyers said in a court filing late Friday, while preparing what he now says was a false statement to Congress about the president's real estate endeavors in Russia during his campaign.
The filing sought a reduced sentence for Cohen, who pleaded guilty Thursday to lying to the Senate Intelligence Committee about a deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen crafted that statement, his lawyers wrote, to maintain Trump team messaging which "portray[ed] contact with Russian representatives" as "having effectively terminated before the Iowa caucuses of February 1, 2016."
"Seeking to stay in line with this message," Friday's filing says, Cohen wrote the comments to Congress he now labels false. He also continued outreach to Russian contacts after January of 2016 "and kept [Trump] apprised of these communications," the filing continues. "[Cohen] and [Trump] also discussed possible travel to Russia in the summer of 2016, and Michael took steps to clear dates for such travel."
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Trump has sought to dismiss, deny, or downplay Cohen's claims and the Mueller investigation more broadly.
The portions of the filing arguing for lenient sentencing highlight Cohen's cooperation with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation in spite of Trump's vocal critique of the probe. Cohen's attorneys are pushing to keep him out of prison. Sentencing is set for Dec. 12.
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