Ex-lawyer Cohen assails ‘conman’ Trump, gives no direct evidence of collusion
WASHINGTON, (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen accused him of breaking the law while in office and said for the first time that Trump knew in advance about a WikiLeaks dump of stolen emails that hurt his 2016 election rival Hillary Clinton.
In a dramatic televised hearing in Congress yesterday, Cohen said Trump approved hush payments to cover up extra-marital sexual relationships in violation of campaign finance laws, and signed a personal check for $35,000 in 2017 to reimburse Cohen for at least one of those payments.
Cohen, 52, was a close aide of Trump for years and his testimony could increase the legal and political pressure on the Republican president, but he did not appear to disclose a “smoking gun” that could sink his former boss.
Cohen told a House of Representatives committee he had no direct evidence that Trump or his campaign colluded with Moscow during the election campaign.
Possible collusion is a key theme of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, which has dogged the president during his two years in office. Trump has repeatedly denied the allegation as has the Kremlin.
Assailing the president as a “conman” and a “cheat,” Cohen said Trump knew ahead of time about WikiLeaks’ release of emails in 2016 that undermined Democrat Clinton’s presidential bid.
He also said Trump directed negotiations for a real estate project in Moscow during the White House race even as he publicly said he had no business interests in Russia.
“I wouldn’t use the word colluding,” Cohen said of Trump’s dealings with Russia, adding that there was “something odd” about the president’s good relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The White House had no comment on Cohen’s testimony but Trump earlier on Wednesday accused his former employee of lying.
“He did bad things unrelated to Trump. He is lying in order to reduce his prison time,” Trump wrote on Twitter from Vietnam, where he was meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Republican lawmakers at the hearing tried to undermine Cohen, portraying him as an irre- deemable liar who had benefited from financial crimes he pleaded guilty to last year, and saying the hearing was an opening gambit in a Democratic push to impeach Trump.
“I don’t believe Michael Cohen is capable of telling the truth,” said Republican Representative James Comer.
Cohen was mostly calm and contrite under the heated questioning from Republicans, and cautioned them not to make the
same mistake he did in protecting Trump.
“I did the same thing as you’re doing now, for 10 years. I protected Mr. Trump for 10 years,” Cohen told the committee hearing. “The more people that follow Mr. Trump as I did blindly are going to suffer the same consequences that I am suffering.”
As the hearing wrapped up, Cohen wiped away tears when the committee’s Democratic chairman, Elijah Cummings, expressed sympathy for him.
Cohen said in his closing remarks that he worried about the ramifications if Trump loses his re-election bid in 2020.
“Given my experience working for Mr. Trump, I fear that if he loses the election in 2020, there will never be a peaceful transition of power,” Cohen said.
Cohen was one of Trump’s closest aides and fiercest defenders, working with him on business and personal deals for a decade.