Cohen's help to prosecutors may be ending

NEW YORK -- When FBI agents raided Michael Cohen's home and office a year ago today, some pundits declared it the beginning of the end of Donald Trump's presidency. It was only a matter of time, they speculated, before Cohen gave investigators a roadmap to Trump's supposed misdeeds.

Cohen stoked those flames as recently as Thursday by saying he was cooperating in federal probes he wasn't at liberty to discuss.

And yet, there are mounting indications Cohen's usefulness to federal prosecutors is drying up -- and he may wind up being the only person to go to prison for the hush-money scandal that has dogged Trump's presidency.

Several members of the team prosecuting Trump's former lawyer and fixer in New York have announced they are moving on to other jobs, something usually happening when a big case is winding down.

Prosecutors have also been returning electronic devices and documents seized from Cohen, an indication those materials might not be needed for future prosecutions.

And special counsel Robert Mueller's closing of his probe into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election effectively shuts the door on Cohen emerging as a key witness in that investigation.

"They're not going to be making any new cases with his testimony," predicted David S. Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor in Miami.

With Cohen scheduled to report to prison May 6, his attorneys have reached out to Democrats in Congress, asking them to write letters saying Cohen's three-year sentence for tax evasion, campaign finance violations and other crimes should be postponed because his help is needed going through a "substantial trove of new information, documents, recordings, and other evidence." But tellingly, federal prosecutors themselves made no such request.

To be sure, federal authorities in New York don't appear to be finished scrutinizing people close to Trump. Investigations continue into the president's inaugural committee. Among other things, authorities are looking into payments made to vendors and whether foreigners illegally donated.

New York state officials are also examining Cohen's claims to Congress that Trump fudged the value of his assets with dealing with insurance companies and banks.

But whether Cohen would play a central role as a witness in any of those investigations is unclear.

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani dismissed Cohen's plea to Congress to help him remain free as "pretty hilarious."

"Cohen has already spilled his guts," Giuliani said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation." "He has nothing at all incriminating on" Trump.

Asked on the same program whether House Democrats would be willing to write letters on Cohen's behalf, House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler was noncommittal.

Trump himself sounded unconcerned about Cohen last week, saying, "He's old news."

Cohen's spokesman, Lanny Davis, didn't comment.