Michael Cohen's latest guilty plea revealed a closely guarded Trump business secret. But in a deeply uncomfortable turn for President Donald Trump, one of the people in the know was an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Thursday's dramatic turn of events is problematic for Trump because it suggests the Kremlin knew something that people around Trump were working hard to hold close — that Trump was moving forward with a Moscow business deal at the same time he was deep in the race for the U.S. presidency. Any undisclosed foreign arrangements would raise red flags about candidates for national office, making them vulnerable to blackmail by others privy to those secrets. Russians call such nuggets of damaging information "kompromat," a concept that's become familiar enough to enter the international lexicon.
Whether Russia used such information is a matter for speculation. But Cohen's revelation shows that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is digging deep into financial relationships between Trump's business and Moscow, taking him to the heart of the connections he was appointed to explore between Russia and Trump's campaign.