Judge says good morning. My understanding is mr. Cohen who like to wave indictment. Is that correct . Cohens defense lawyer, thats correct, your honor. The judge, okay. The judge then says please state your full name. The defendant says michael dean cohen. The judge, how old are you . Cohen, 52. The judge, how far did you go in school . Cohen, jd degree. Judge, are you recently or are you recently been under the care of a physician . No, sir have you seen a psychologist or had Mental Health counseling . No, your honor. The judge, have you ever been treated for any psychiatric condition . No, sir. Judge, have you ever been hospitalized for drug abuse or alcohol abuse . Michael cohen, no, sir. The judge, does defense counsel have any doubts about your clients competence to proceed . I do not, your honor. I find that mr. Cohen appears alert. He has answered the questions appropriately. I find he is competent to proceed, and we will continue. The judge says, quote, mr. Cohen, i want to make sure you understand that youre being charged with a felony offense. Do you understand, sir . Michael cohen, i do, sir. The judge, the sole count of the information charges false statements. It states on or about august 28th, 2017, the defendant Michael Cohen in the District Of Columbia and elsewhere in a matter within the jurisdiction of the legislative branch of the government of the United States knowingly and willfully made a false, fictitious and fraudulent statement and representation. To wit, cohen caused to be submitted containing materially false statements about the moscow project. Including false statements about the timing of the project, discussions with people in the company, the Trump Organization and in russia about the moscow project, and contemplated travel to russia in connection with the moscow project. The judge says do you understand the nature of that charge, mr. Cohen . Michael cohen says i do, your honor. The judge, do you have any questions for me before we continue . No, your honor. Defense counsel, are you aware of any reason why your client should not plead guilty . Defense for Michael Cohen, guy petrillo says no, your honor. The judge says are you aware of any legal District Attorneys Office the charge . Cohens defense lawyer guy petrillo says not that would prevail at trial. The judge says, mr. Cohen, are you satisfied with your legal reputation up to this point . Yes, your honor. Are you willing to give up your rights to a trial and all the other rights we have discussed . Cohen, yes, sir. The judge, how do you plead to the sole count . Michael cohen, guilty, your honor. And then it gets a little confusing. The judge says how do you plead . Michael cohen says guilty, your honor. And then the judge says guilty or not guilty . And Michael Cohen says sorry and the judge says thats fine. Guilty . And Michael Cohen says, yes, sir. The judge did it really quick. I really am here to plead guilty. Sorry, were you not done. Guilty did i say but then at this point in the proceedings is where the spotlight really turns on Michael Cohen, and this is a surprise proceeding. Everybody who is there in the courtroom has arrived on short notice. There was no advance press that this was going to happen. The plea says a Little Something, but now here is Michael Cohen in court really getting to explain, put a little narrative on whats going on here. The judge, after he has just plead guilty, the judge turns to Michael Cohen and says to him, quote, okay, tell me what it is that you did that makes you guilty. Michael cohen so if i may stand, your honor, if i may stand up for it. The judge says whats that . Michael cohen, may i stand for this on this . You may. It may be easier if you sit and speak into the microphone. Michael cohen, then that is what i shall do. The judge says all right, go ahead. Michael cohen clears his throat. Ahem. Thank you. Prior to the 2016 president ial election, i had been the executive Vice President and special counsel to donald j. Trump and the Trump Organization. By 2017, i was no longer employed in this capacity, but continued to serve on several matters as an attorney to the former ceo of the Trump Organization who is now president of the United States. He is referred to as individual 1 in the criminal information. As i had in the years before the election, i continued in 2017 to follow the day to day political messaging that both mr. Trump and his staff and advisers repeatedly broadcast, and i stayed in close contact with these advisers to mr. Trump. As such, i was aware of mr. Trumps repeated disavowels of commercial and political ties between himself and russia, his repeated statements that investigations of such ties were politically motivated and without evidence, and that any contact with russian nationals by his campaign or the Trump Organization had all terminated before the iowa caucus, which was on february 1, 2016. In 2017, i was scheduled to appear before the Senate Intelligence committee as well as the house Intelligence Committee concerning matters under their investigation, including principally, whether russia was involved in or interfered in the 2016 campaign and election. In connection with my appearances, i submitted a written statement to congress, including among other things a description of a proposed real estate project in moscow that i had worked on while i was employed by the Trump Organization. That description was false. I knew at the time it was false in that i had asserted that all efforts concerning the project had ceased in january 2016 when in fact they had continued through june of that year. It was also false when i asse asserted that i had very limited discussions with mr. Trump and others in the country concerning the project when in fact i had more extensive communications, and it was false when i said i never agreed to travel to russia in connection with the project and had never asked mr. Trump to travel when in fact i took steps to and had discussions with mr. Trump about travel to russia. He then says i would like to note that i did not in fact travel there nor have i ever been to russia. He says, quote, i made these statements to be consistent with mr. Trumps political messaging and out of loyalty to mr. Trump. And at that point it kind of feels like its over, but it turns out he left something out, something that turns out to be important. And so the prosecution sort of jumps in to fill that in. So the judge at this point says, quote, any further allocution requested by the government . And the prosecutor from special counsel Robert Muellers office, rush atkinson, he says yes, your honor. As set forth in the criminal information, which is like an indictment except you get a criminal information when you plead guilty instead of going trial, as set forth in the information, mr. Cohen submitted in his statement falsely that upon reaching out to the kremlin in january 2016 about the moscow project, he had not received any response. In fact, he had received a response from the kremlin. So in essence, mr. Cohen minimized his contacts with the russian government and stated so falsely in his submission. The judge says you want that as part of this allocution . Mr. Atkinson says yes, please. Mr. Cohen, did you hear that . I did, your honor. Is that correct . It is correct, your honor. There is one contact. The judge says any further allocution requested by the government . The Prosecutor Says no, your honor, thank you. And thats where we get to the curtain call. The judge says, quote, i find mr. Cohen is competent to proceed. I find he understands the rights that he is waiving by pleading guilty. I further find there is a factual basis for this plea, and i accept his plea of guilty. So today the president s longtime personal lawyer, longtime executive of his business plead guilty to a coverup, a criminal coverup. He plead guilty to lying to congress about the extent of the real estate dealings that President Trump and his business were engaged in and pursuing in russia with the help of the kremlin while trump was running for president , and while the kremlin was simultaneously mounting an International Military intelligence operation to skew our election in order to tilt toward trump. The lies that Michael Cohen told congress about this matter i should tell you had consequences. His lies about this trump tower moscow thing made it lock, stock and barrel into the report that House Republicans announced yesterday when it turns out trump didnt do anything and it really is all one big witchhunt. Remember when House Republicans came out with that report months ago . Michael cohens lies to congress about the trump tower moscow project made into it the report. Cohen attempted to reach out the members of the russian government in an attempt to make the project proceed, but apparently did not have any direct points on contact. It does not appear cohen ever received a response from anyone affiliated with the russian government. Neither president putin nor any element of the russian government was actually involved in the project. Those were all lies, but the republicans in congress bought them all, hook, line and sinker. They regurgitated them in unprocessed form as their report about what happened between trump and russia during the campaign. Now Michael Cohen has confessed in open court that those were lies. Now that was just the House Republican report on what happened between trump and russia. You might remember the democrats on the Intelligence Committee, they didnt sign on to that report. They were sort of furious about it when the republicans issued that report. You might remember they put out their own minority report explaining what they had come to learn, what they had come to believe about trump and russia during the 2016 campaign, and its a minority report. People in the minority in the house have no real power whatsoever. So its an object of sort of academic interest, but it wasnt going to go anywhere. Theirs turns out to have been remarkably prescient, though. And one of this they think the democrats in the house under the leadership of adam schiff on the Intelligence Committee, one of the things they very helpfully published months ago as part of their democratic report is this email, which we had never previously seen. And this email shows where the money was going to come from to build trump tower moscow. This is on page 50 of the democrats report. This is an email we had never seen before. It was dated october 12, 2015. So its during the republican primary season, right. It was from felix sater, who worked at the Trump Organization, to Michael Cohen. It was titled andrey kostin. And in the body of the email, it said costin is putins top finance guy. He is on board and has indicate head would finance trump moscow. This is major for us not only the financing aspect, but kostins position in russia extremely powerful and respected. The email concludes i will call you later to discuss getting the letter of intent signed. And sure enough, within a couple of weeks, on the night of the third primary Republican Debate during the 2016 election, that same day donald trump in fact signed the letter of intent to go ahead with trump tower moscow. To be financed by a russian bank called vtb. Apparently they were that far along in the negotiations they could do a letter of intent because they had one of the main things you need to go ahead with the project like this to go ahead, the financing on board. It was going to be vtb. It is a very large bank in russia. It is staterun. It is also sanctioned by the government so americans arent allowed to do business with them. Maybe thats a small point in the larger scheme of things, but i point this out because there is a really neat trick that happened in todays news. So today we have this court transcript. This surprise federal court in norm, longtime trump lawyer Michael Cohen turns up in court, pleads guilty to lying to congress. What happened today with Michael Cohen tells us a few Different Things that are really interesting in terms of where we are as a country right now and where this presidency is and is going. Number one, it tells us that muellers prosecutors are willing to bring felony charges against people who have lied to congress in conjunction with this scandal. Vanity fair reported weeks ago that the president s eldest son, don jr. Has been very concerned and there have been serious concerns in the white house that he would be indicted for having lied to congress that was never quite sure how seriously to take those kinds of reported worries, but if you didnt take the prospect of felony indictments for lying to congress if you didnt take those prospects seriously before, now that Somebody Just plead guilty to a felony for lying to congress you take that a bit more seriously after today. The fact that this prosecution today was for lying to congress, it also raises really interesting live questions, new questions about the relationship between congress and the Mueller Investigation. At a time when democrats are poised to take over the house. I mean, if mueller will bring charges against people who lied to congressional committees, this is now this live issue for members of congress as to whether or not the committees are going to hand over the transcripts from witness testimony on the russia investigation so mueller can review those transcripts for potential perjury and potentially bring more charges. Congressman adam schiff made clear today that when he and democrats do take over in the new year, at least at the Intelligence Committee, theyre going to be sending to mueller immediately all of the transcripts of all of the witnesses who have testified who may find their testimony newly relevant to the Mueller Investigation now that people are starting to plead guilty to felonies for lying to congress in conjunction with this scandal. Another thing todays Court Appearance tells us is that Robert Mueller is alive and well. The last time Michael Cohen plead guilty in new york, he was up against prosecutors from the Southern District of new york. Today it was prosecutors from Robert Muellers office, and it was Robert Muellers name and signature on the court filings. If Matthew Whitaker was installed at the Justice Department to bring the Mueller Investigation to a halt, today shows that that has not happened. This was a significant new step in the Mueller Investigation. Whitaker didnt stop it, and in fact Msnbcs Nicolle Wallace reported today that Matt Whitaker in fact is not directly supervising the Mueller Investigation on a daytoday basis. The Mueller Investigation according to nicolles reporting today is still being overseen by Rod Rosenstein in the Deputy AttorneyGenerals Office on a daytoday basis. And what that means in a practical sense, according to the Washington Post tonight is that Matthew Whitaker was notified about what was going to happen today, but he wasnt asked. He wasnt asked to approve it. It was approved by rosenstein. So whitaker knew it was happening but he didnt get to say yeah or nay. That seems important. Another thing this action tells us today is were to be get a whole much more a whole big bunch of information out of mueller. In the plea agreement that Michael Cohen signed on to today, there was a statement of the offense, the criminal information, also a plea agreement. Sometimes its hard to tell how much of this stuff is boiler plate, but even if it is boilerplate, this line from cohens plea agreement still seems important. It says in cohens plea agreement today, quote, the government reserves the right to describe fully both orally and in written to the sentencing judge the nature and seriousness of your clients misconduct, include anything misconduct not described in the charges to which your client is pleading guilty. Oh. Michael cohen is due to be sentenced on december 12th on the previous felonies to which he plead and the felony he plead today. The special counsels office and his plea agreement is thereby reserving the right to tell all in open court on the occasion of cohens sentencing. Which is in