Just a little over two hours separated President Trump angrily tweeting “Did you ever see an investigation more in search of a crime?” and special counsel Robert Mueller announcing his latest evidence of new crimes Thursday morning. Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the status of the real estate developer’s hotel deal in Moscow.

The new guilty plea firmly—and dramatically—shifts the narrative and timeline of the Russia investigation, establishing that while pursuing the White House, Donald Trump was also pursuing personal business deals with a foreign adversary that, according to Mueller’s earlier indictments, engaged in a multifaceted, complex, expensive, and long-running criminal conspiracy to help deliver Trump to the presidency. Trump denied Cohen's assertions Thursday morning, calling his former lawyer a "weak person."

The guilty plea—which, like every step of the Mueller investigation took even close watchers by surprise with its timing and rich level of detail—draws a direct connection between Donald Trump’s business deals and Russian president Vladimir Putin. You can read it in its entirety below.

Mueller’s office lays out how, in January 2016, Cohen contacted Putin’s longtime adviser and press secretary Dmitry Peskov, identified in court documents as “Russian Official 1,” for help with what the court filing calls the “Moscow Project.”

Cohen ended up speaking on the phone with Peskov’s personal assistant, referred to as "Assistant 1" in the documents, for 20 minutes. According to the court filing, “Cohen requested assistance in moving the project forward, both in securing land to build the proposed tower and financing the construction. Assistant 1 asked detailed questions and took notes, stating that she would follow up with others in Russia.”

Mueller is steadily moving even more information about the Trump Organization’s business dealings with Russia into public view.

Notably, Mueller says in the document that the talks continued into June 2016—the same month as the infamous and mysterious meeting at Trump Tower between Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort, and a number of Russians promising help to the campaign. Moreover, talks about the project continued for some time, long past the January 2016 end date that Cohen had told congressional investigators in August 2017.

The move by Mueller on Thursday marks the first significant development in the case since the appointment by Trump earlier this month of Matt Whitaker as the acting US attorney general; Whitaker has been a vocal critic of Mueller’s work, and his selection led to fears that Mueller might be shut down or stymied.

Thursday’s development provides another illuminating building block in what is turning out to be Mueller’s methodical legal strategy. Lying to Congress, while certainly a crime, is rarely prosecuted, and the guilty plea by Cohen, who had already pleaded guilty to eight other charges of tax fraud and campaign finance violations, will likely matter little to whatever punishment or prison sentence he may someday face.

Thus, Mueller’s decision to prosecute Cohen for it—the first time the special counsel himself has targeted Cohen, since the earlier case was handled by federal prosecutors in Manhattan and the Justice Department’s Southern District of New York—is meant clearly to send another, multipronged message:

First, lying to Congress about Russian matters is within Mueller’s purview, a potentially bad sign for the dozens of other witnesses who have appeared before the House and Senate over the last two years.

Second, Mueller is steadily moving even more information about the Trump Organization’s business dealings with Russia into public view. The plea agreement and court filing, like everything from Mueller, is more detailed than it needs to be, serving the purpose of what’s known as a “speaking indictment,” publicizing relevant facts for public debate and discussion above and beyond what’s strictly necessary for criminal prosecution.

Third, Donald Trump himself and his family face legal jeopardy. Cohen makes clear that he kept what the court filing calls “Individual 1”—Donald Trump himself—aware of the ongoing “Moscow Project” conversations. Cohen also says that he filled in family members, presumably some combination of Donald Jr. and Eric Trump—both of whom had key roles in the Trump Organization—or son-in-law Jared Kushner, who participated in many conversations and meetings over the course of 2016. If any of their previous testimony contradicts Cohen’s statement of facts, they could themselves be prosecuted for lying to Congress.