Michael Cohen's legal woes keep getting worse and signs don't point to a Trump pardon Donald Trump is distancing himself from Michael Cohen and troubles that involve possible bank fraud, illegal campaign contributions and access for sale.

Renato Mariotti | Opinion contributor

Show Caption Hide Caption Michael Cohen says Stormy Daniels' lawyer mixed him up with namesakes Michael Cohen is making his most astonishing claim of defense yet, insisting some of that supposed evidence leveled against him is being confused with another Michael Cohen. Nathan Rousseau Smith has the story.

The shocking allegations that Michael Cohen received over $4.4 million after Donald Trump's election from various companies — including an American firm linked to a Russian oligarch — help explain why he is under investigation by federal prosecutors in New York and suggest he has criminal liability beyond what was previously known.

Many of the details were originally leaked by Michael Avenatti, attorney for adult film actress Stormy Daniels, in an "Executive Summary" on Tuesday night. The payments to Cohen, Trump's longtime lawyer and fixer, were made to a shell company that Cohen created shortly before making a $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels through the shell company less than two weeks before the 2016 presidential election.

The most explosive revelation was that $500,000 was paid to Cohen via the shell company by Columbus Nova, a New York investment firm linked to a Russian oligarch. (Columbus Nova confirmed the payment but denied wrongdoing.) The timing of the payments to the shell company — which began about three months after the $130,000 payment to Daniels — create potential liability for Cohen under campaign finance law.

It is illegal for a foreign national to make a contribution in connection with a United States election. If the payment to Daniels was related to the campaign, it's possible that the oligarch used Columbus Nova and Cohen's shell company to funnel a contribution to help Trump in a manner devised to escape detection.

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On its face, there are many reasons unrelated to an election why someone might try to hide an extramarital affair. But another Trump lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, recently said that Cohen "did his job" by ensuring that the Daniels affair was not revealed "in the middle of the last debate with Hillary Clinton." The timing of the payment supports the argument that it was campaign-related.

That isn't the biggest legal problem for Cohen raised by this week's news. The Avenatti summary listed several alleged false statements made by Cohen to First Republic Bank when he created the bank account for the shell company. While there are not enough facts in the summary to determine whether Avenatti's allegation that Cohen committed "bank fraud" is accurate, knowingly making false statements to a financial institution is usually an element of bank fraud.

Taken as a whole, this week's revelations help explain why federal prosecutors in New York are investigating Cohen for bank fraud and campaign finance violations. Shortly after the payments were made public, CNN reported that investigators in special counsel Robert Mueller's office questioned the Russian oligarch earlier this year. Then AT&T — one of the companies that paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to Cohen's shell company after the election — revealed that it had complied with inquiries from Mueller's team about the payments late last year.

Thus far, it's not clear whether Trump has any potential criminal liability related to the payments. Although his account of whether he knew about the payment to Daniels has changed, lying to the public or the press is not a crime. Giuliani told the press yesterday that he called Trump and asked him about the payments. According to Giuliani, Trump replied, "I don’t know anything about it." That is another misstep by Giuliani, who waived attorney-client privilege by publicly recounting the president's words. If Giuliani made the statement in his own words, he could have taken the fall if Trump's recollection turned out to be inaccurate.

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You don't need to be a lawyer to know that Cohen is in big trouble. Yet the most shocking aspects of this week's news may result in no criminal liability to Cohen. Given Trump's promise to "drain the swamp," news that his personal attorney took millions of dollars from companies to serve as a "lobbyist" for pharmaceutical giant Novartis, to provide "insights" to AT&T, and to provide "legal consulting regarding accounting standards" to Korea Aerospace Industries are problematic.

It is unusual, to say the least, that Cohen received millions from those companies after Trump's election. It is hard to believe that he was paid due to his skill as a lawyer, and it is odd that he used the shell company he set up to pay Daniels to receive the money. But it's unclear whether Cohen committed a crime by doing so. Cohen did fail to register as a lobbyist, but that is only a crime if he did so to purposely undermine the law, and there is an exception for individuals who spend less than 20% of their time lobbying.

Cohen's team has pointed out some inaccuracies in his summary, but none of them go to the core allegations that generated headlines, most of which were confirmed by the companies themselves. Cohen's lawyers also question how Avenatti came to possess the bank records. The Treasury Department's Office of Inspector General has confirmed it is investigating unlawful dissemination of a Suspicious Activity Report related to Cohen's shell company.

Still, if Cohen is charged by federal prosecutors, all of that would matter far less than the strength of the government's evidence and whether Cohen could expect a pardon from Trump. Given how carefully Trump has sought to distance himself from Cohen and his activities, it does not appear a pardon is forthcoming — which may mean a long and difficult road ahead for Cohen.

Renato Mariotti is a former federal prosecutor. Follow him on Twitter: renato_mariotti