NEW YORK -- Federal prosecutors have told a judge in New York that they have concluded their investigation into campaign finance crimes committed by President Donald Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen.
The closure of the case is the strongest suggestion yet that federal prosecutors have decided not to bring criminal charges against anyone besides Cohen in the scheme to use payments to protect Trump's reputation during the 2016 presidential campaign.
U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III made the disclosure in a court filing Wednesday as part of a legal fight over whether to unseal search warrant materials dealing with the investigation.
For months, prosecutors had asked that the documents remain sealed because they were still probing payments Cohen helped orchestrate to two women -- porn actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy centerfold Karen McDougal -- who claimed they had affairs with Trump.
While Cohen pleaded guilty last August to charges that the payoffs amounted to illegal campaign contributions, others involved remained uncharged, including Trump and executives at the Trump Organization and American Media Inc., the company that owns the National Enquirer.
Now, prosecutors have informed the court in a sealed filing that they've concluded the investigation, clearing the way for the release of case-related documents.
"Now that the Government's investigation into those violations has concluded, it is time that every American has an opportunity to scrutinize the materials," Pauley wrote.
He ordered the government to put the warrant records related to searches of Cohen's residence and office in the public record by 10 a.m. today.
Trump has denied any sexual relationship with Daniels and McDougal and said any payments made to them were private in nature and not related to his campaign.
"We are pleased that the investigation surrounding these ridiculous campaign finance allegations is now closed," Trump's lawyer, Jay Sekulow, said Wednesday. "We have maintained from the outset that the president never engaged in any campaign finance violation."
The U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan declined to comment on whether the completion of the investigation meant that no one else would be charged.
In December, Pauley sentenced Cohen to three years in prison for crimes including the campaign finance violations, lying to Congress and tax evasion. He began serving the sentence in May.
In previous court filings, federal prosecutors in New York appeared to implicate Trump directly, saying that he told Cohen to make the hush-money payments.
However, the Justice Department has held that sitting presidents cannot be charged in the federal criminal justice system and can only be punished for misdeeds through the impeachment process.
The records to be unsealed include search warrant applications that federal prosecutors submitted to judges in New York when they sought permission to raid Cohen's home and office. In them, they outlined some of the evidence they had gathered about his alleged crimes.
Prosecutors had initially opposed media organizations' requests for the records, saying disclosure "would jeopardize an ongoing investigation and prejudice the privacy rights of uncharged third parties."
News organizations in the legal action to unseal the documents included The Associated Press, The New York Times and the parent companies of ABC and CBS News, CNN, the Daily News, The Wall Street Journal, Newsday and the New York Post.
A Section on 07/18/2019