Any inquiry you may be pursuing

The Times on Trump’s oopsie:

President Trump’s financial disclosure, released on Wednesday, revealed for the first time that he paid more than $100,000 to his personal attorney, Michael D. Cohen, as reimbursement for payment to a third-party.

That is, this is the first time Trump has admitted it to the feds.

Mr. Trump’s disclosure of the 2016 payment to Mr. Cohen raises the question of whether he erred in not reporting the debt on last year’s disclosure form. The document released Wednesday said that Mr. Trump was reporting the repaid debt “in the interest of transparency” but that it was “not required to be disclosed as reportable liabilities.”

Yet a letter accompanying the report sent to Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, from the government ethics office’s acting director, David J. Apol, said that the Office of Government Ethics had determined “the payment made by Mr. Cohen is required to be reported as a liability.”

Let’s see the rest of what the letter said:

Dear Mr. Rosenstein,

I write to you in connection with the complaint by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington on March 8, 2018 with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE). Specifically, the complaint requested that DOJ and OGE investigate whether a payment made by Mr. Michael Cohen to a third party constituted a loan to President Trump that should have been reported as a liability on his public financial disclosure report signed on June 14, 2017 (for calendar year 2016), and if so, whether the failure to report it was knowing and willful.

Today I certified President Trump’ s financial disclosure report signed on May 15, 2018 (for calendar year 2017). OGE has concluded that, based on the information provided as a note to part 8, the payment made by Mr. Cohen is  required to be reported as a liability. OGE has determined that the information provided in that note meets the disclosure requirements for a reportable liability under the Ethics in Government Act. I am providing both reports to you because you may find the disclosure relevant to any inquiry you may be pursuing regarding the President’s prior report that was signed on June 14, 2017.

Then his signature. Notice he doesn’t address the knowing and willful part.

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