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New Charges in Trump Campaign Finance Inquiry Are Unlikely, Prosecutors Signal
The disclosure came as documents were released showing that the investigation had been expanded, but is now over.

By Ben Protess and William K. Rashbaum
July 18, 2019

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Federal prosecutors signaled in a court document released on Thursday that it was unlikely they would file additional charges in the hush-money investigation that ensnared members of Donald J. Trump’s inner circle and threatened to derail his presidency.

In the document, the prosecutors said they had “effectively concluded” their inquiry, which centered on payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to buy the silence of two women who said they had had affairs with Mr. Trump.

The prosecutors with the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan also revealed for the first time that they had expanded their investigation from campaign finance violations to include whether “certain individuals” lied to investigators or tried to obstruct the inquiry.

The brief report did not identify the targets of those investigations, although it contained redactions of what appeared to be at least one name. That investigation has also ended, prosecutors said.

The disclosures came in a document filed with William H. Pauley III, a federal judge in Manhattan. The judge had ordered the prosecutors on Wednesday to publicly release a number of documents related to their investigation.

The president’s former lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, was convicted in the case. He has said he helped arrange the hush money at the direction of Mr. Trump, and prosecutors have repeated the accusation in court papers. Mr. Cohen is serving a three-year prison sentence.

Mr. Trump has denied the affairs and any campaign finance violations.

As recently as this spring, prosecutors were still considering whether one Trump Organization executive was untruthful when testifying before the grand jury, according to people briefed on the matter.

The search warrant documents shed light on the breadth of evidence the prosecutors amassed against Mr. Cohen even before searching his property and interviewing a number of witnesses. The prosecutors initially had released the documents in March, with nearly every detail of the campaign finance evidence redacted.

The Trump Organization reimbursed Mr. Cohen for the hush money he paid to Stormy Daniels, a pornographic film actress. Mr. Cohen also urged American Media Inc., which publishes The National Enquirer, to buy the rights to a former Playboy model’s story of an affair with Mr. Trump. Both deals effectively silenced the women in the run-up to the 2016 election.

Ben Protess covers the Trump Administration, including its overhaul of Obama-era regulations and potential conflicts of interest arising out of the president's personal business dealings. He previously covered white collar crime, Wall Street lobbying and the private equity industry. @benprotess

William K. Rashbaum is a senior writer on the Metro desk, where he covers political and municipal corruption, courts, terrorism and broader law enforcement topics. He was a part of the team awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news. @WRashbaum • Facebook

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/18/nyregion/michael-cohen-trump-investigation.html