The New York state attorney general’s office is prepared to initiate a criminal probe targeting President Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen’s possible state tax law violations, according to a new report.
The state’s Department of Taxation and Finance granted a criminal referral to the office of New York state Attorney General Barbara Underwood after Underwood’s office requested one, a personal familiar with the matter told CNN. It’s standard for referral requests to be approved.
The report comes after Cohen pleaded guilty to charges including tax evasion, willful cause of unlawful corporate contribution, and excessive campaign contribution.
Criminal information filed against Cohen reveals that he did not report more than $4 million in income, meaning he sidestepped $1.4 million in taxes to the IRS. It remains uncertain if he also inaccurately reported his income on New York state tax returns.
[Trump: Need a lawyer? Don’t hire Michael Cohen]
Cohen may face a new set of charges on the state level from Underwood’s office, since New York state’s double jeopardy laws don’t cover tax violations.
The campaign finance violations Cohen pleaded guilty to on Tuesday were related to payments he made to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, two women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump years ago. While court filings don’t mention Trump by name, Cohen said they were paid at the direction of the “candidate” in exchange for their silence on the affairs.
Trump denies that campaign funds were ever used to arrange the hush money payments.
