Thread by @ZoeTillman

New: A federal judge in DC has unsealed five search warrant applications that Mueller's office filed in 2017 while they were investigating Michael Cohen
assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6022…
assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6022…
assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6022…
assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6022…
assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6022…

The search warrant applications show that by the summer of 2017, Mueller's office was investigating whether Cohen was acting as an agent for a foreign entity without notifying US authorities, as well as whether he made false statements to financial institutions

Speaking of Michael Cohen, there was also this last night from @a_cormier_ and @JasonLeopold: New Transcripts Say That Trump Crafted Michael Cohen’s Lies More Closely Than Was Previously Known
buzzfeednews.com/article/anthon…

@a_cormier_ @JasonLeopold One of the newly unsealed search warrant applications shows that as of November 2017, Mueller's office knew that Trump had been writing $280K+ in checks to Michael Cohen throughout that year assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6022…

This isn't the first we've learned about search warrants sought by Mueller's office in 2017 — later applications unsealed in Cohen's NY case referenced the earlier warrants and included some of the docs, but not the complete applications (see: washingtonpost.com/world/national…)

The newly unsealed search warrant apps fill in more about what Mueller's office knew in 2017 and what they had to give SDNY re: Cohen. Recall that it was SDNY, not Mueller, that prosecuted Cohen for the campaign finance violations re: payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal

Newly unsealed court documents show Mueller knew by the end of 2017 that Trump had been writing checks that year to Michael Cohen — it's not clear if Mueller knew at the time about the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, though buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…

Why does this matter? It sheds light on just how much information Mueller's office had already gathered on Cohen by the end of 2017 — recall that ultimately they referred out much of the Cohen case to SDNY, which prosecuted him for the hush money payments buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…