Dispatch November 29, 2018

With Cohen Plea News, NEW Moscow Project Trump-Russia Contact Count: 92 Contacts


Special Counsel Robert Mueller has secured a guilty plea from longtime personal Trump attorney Michael Cohen for making false statements to Congress about a planned Trump Tower Moscow project in 2016.

In his testimony to Congress, Cohen reportedly “played down the extent of his contact with the Kremlin.”

But when it comes to the Trump team, Cohen isn’t the only one who had contacts with Russia-linked operatives and then lied about it.

In April, the Moscow Project released the first comprehensive accounting of publicly-known contacts between members of the Trump campaign and transition team and Russia-linked operatives. With news of the Cohen plea and other developments since then, we have now updated our total tracker to include at least 92 contacts, including at least 27 meetings.

At least 26 high-ranking campaign officials and Trump advisors were involved in or aware of these contacts:

  • Michael Cohen
  • Roger Stone
  • Donald Trump Jr.
  • Jeff Sessions
  • Paul Manafort
  • J.D. Gordon
  • Jared Kushner
  • Carter Page
  • Michael Flynn
  • Erik Prince
  • George Papadopoulos
  • Anthony Scaramucci
  • Rick Gates
  • Corey Lewandowski
  • K.T. McFarland
  • Tom Bossert
  • Hope Hicks
  • Reince Priebus
  • Sam Clovis
  • Stephen Bannon
  • Stephen Miller
  • Sean Spicer
  • John Mashburn
  • Ivanka Trump
  • David Bossie
  • Brad Parscale

The Trump team lied repeatedly about every single contact.

In November 2016, immediately following the election, Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks gave the Associated Press a blanket denial of Trump campaign contacts with Russia, stating, “It never happened. There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign.” This is just one of the many examples.

For the updated, detailed list of contacts and denials, see The Moscow Project’s report: Trump’s Russia Cover-Up by the Numbers: 92+ Contacts with Russia-Linked Operatives.