How Trump let the FBI into Cohen's email, and 4 more takeaways from Mueller's search warrant

On Monday, a judge in the Southern District of New York ordered the public release of a search warrant that allowed the FBI to raid the office and hotel of President Trump's then-lawyer Michael Cohen in April 2018. The 269-page warrant reveals that investigators were looking into Cohen as early as July 2017, and provides new insight on what led him to cooperate with prosecutors. Here are five more stunning takeaways from the release.

1. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office suspected Cohen was a foreign agent. Beyond the crimes Cohen was eventually charged with, the warrant also said Mueller probed Cohen on suspicion that he committed money laundering and acted as an unregistered foreign agent.

2. Cohen got money from Russia. From January to August 2017, Cohen received a total of $583,332 from a company headed by Russian national Viktor Vekselberg. Vekselberg is close with Russian President Vladimir Putin, is currently under U.S. sanctions, and has reportedly been interviewed by Mueller.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

3. FBI agents didn't want to knock on the wrong door. FBI agents used a cell phone tracker called a "triggerfish" to figure out exactly which room Cohen was using in a Manhattan hotel, NBC News details. They also wanted a device that would track Cohen's incoming and outgoing calls, but didn't want to listen in on them.

4. Trump exposed Cohen's Gmail. Despite the warrant's orders, Google wouldn't hand over data stored on "servers located outside of the United States." But Trump soon signed a law giving U.S. law enforcement enhanced access to overseas servers, prompting U.S. prosecutors to return to court and eventually win access to Cohen's Gmail.

5. There's a lot still left sealed. At least 19 consecutive pages covering an "illegal campaign contribution scheme" allegedly involving Trump were redacted in Tuesday's release. That implies a SDNY investigation — which already turned out a plea deal with Cohen — is still ongoing, CNN's Manu Raju says.

Find the whole warrant here.