The probe began after a New Yorker article quoted a law enforcement official who claimed to have leaked a “suspicious activity report” related to Michael Cohen. | Seth Wenig/AP Photo Treasury watchdog: Cohen financial records were not destroyed

The Treasury Department’s inspector general has concluded that confidential financial information related to President Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, is not accessible on a government database because it has been restricted, not deleted.

The probe was launched at the request of Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) after a New Yorker article quoted a law enforcement official who claimed to have leaked a “suspicious activity report” related to Cohen because of concern that two additional reports had been removed.


The IG memo concluded that the reports “were not destroyed; rather the normal level of access to them was restricted in an authorized way consistent with” relevant procedures. All three reports have a notice saying they are “not available to be viewed at this time,” the IG said, confirming that the additional reports do exist. Cohen is not directly named.

This saga began when Michael Avenatti, lawyer to adult film star Stormy Daniels, distributed a document claiming that AT&T, a Russian oligarch and others had contributed to a Cohen bank account for Essential Consultants, the shell company Avenatti said paid money to his client.

The Treasury IG had also been investigating whether that report had been “improperly disseminated.” Asked about the status of that probe, Treasury IG Counsel Rich Delmar said the IG had no further comment.

Banks file hundreds of thousands of suspicious activity reports with Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network every year. They are meant to alert authorities about transactions that could be related to fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing and other illegal activities.

According to the memo, drafted by Delmar and sent to Wyden, the reports were subject to “limited suppression,” meaning they are still counted in analysis and reporting with an acknowledgment on the FinCEN database that they exist.

Reasons for limited suppression include the existence of a grand jury subpoena, sensitive national security information, highly sensitive law enforcement information “such as details about undercover operations,” and “highly unusual circumstances,” such as a highly sensitive investigation, the memo states.

This article tagged under: Russia

Michael Cohen