‘Mr President, I find it ironic that you’re in Vietnam now’
For a decade he was Donald Trump’s ‘‘fixer’’, the man who said he would ‘‘take a bullet’’ for his boss. But when Michael Cohen raised his right hand before a Congressional committee he threatened to do his best to torpedo the Trump presidency.
He laid out a litany of accusations, including that Trump had only run for office for publicity, that he knew in advance about WikiLeaks releasing Russian-hacked emails, that he committed criminal acts in the White House and that he was a ‘‘racist’’ who called black people ‘‘stupid’’.
Cohen hoped it would be a ‘‘John Dean moment’’ – recalling how Richard Nixon’s White House counsel turned on him. After watching the testimony, Dean, now 81, said: ‘‘His mea culpa was excellent. I find him a good witness. This is a witness who can cause the president trouble.’’
WikiLeaks
Among Cohen’s most damaging allegations was that Trump knew about the release by WikiLeaks, on July 22 2016, of emails hacked by Russia from the Democratic Party.
He said Roger Stone, the political consultant and Trump associate, was working as an unpaid freelance for Trump and would regularly call him.
Cohen said he listened in as Stone said there would be a ‘‘massive dump’’ of emails within ‘‘a few days’’. Trump responded: ‘‘Wouldn’t that be great,’’ but Cohen did not say he had evidence that Trump was actively colluding with WikiLeaks and the Russians.
‘‘I would not use the word collude,’’ he said. But he believed Trump was ‘‘capable’’ of colluding with a foreign power and would do ‘‘whatever is necessary’’ to win.
Stormy Daniels
Cohen detailed a sense of panic in the days before the election as Stormy Daniels threatened to go public with her accusations of an affair with Trump.
He said Trump told him: ‘‘It’s $130,000, it’s not a lot of money and we should just do it. So go ahead and do it.’’ Cohen said he ended up making the payment. He was repaid by Trump with 11 personal cheques over a year, he said.
Describing a visit to see Trump in the Oval Office he said: ‘‘It’s truly awe-inspiring, he’s showing me around and pointing to different paintings. He says something to the effect of ‘Don’t worry, Michael, your January and February cheques are coming’.’’
In addition to a cheque for
US$35,000 paid to him on Aug 1
2017, he also produced in Congress another similar one signed by Trump, Donald Trump Jr and Allen Weisselberg.
Trump Tower Moscow Cohen suggested Trump knew in advance about the Trump Tower meeting with Kremlinconnected Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, set up by his son, Donald Jr, during the campaign. Cohen described an incident in which Donald Jr told his father in a low voice: ‘‘The meeting is all set.’’ He said Trump replied: ‘‘OK good ... let me know.’’ Trump has denied having advance knowledge of the meeting, which has come under intense scrutiny in the Robert Mueller probe. Cohen said: ‘‘Mr Trump frequently told me and others that his son Don Jr had the worst judgment of anyone in the world and also that Don Jr would never set up any meeting of any significance without checking with his father.’’
Cohen has been convicted of lying to Congress about a project to build a Moscow Trump Tower. He first told Congress the plan ended early in Trump’s presidential candidacy, when in fact it went on after he was the Republican nominee. Cohen said: ‘‘Mr Trump did not directly tell me to lie to Congress. That’s not how he operates. In conversations we had during the campaign, at the same time I was actively negotiating in Russia for him, he would look me in the eye and tell me, ’There’s no business in Russia’ and then go out and lie to the American people. In his way, he was telling me to lie.’’
Racism
Cohen said: ‘‘Mr Trump is a racist. In private he is even worse. He once asked me if I could name a country run by a black person that wasn’t a ’s---hole’. This was when Barack Obama was president. While we were once driving through a struggling neighbourhood in Chicago, he commented that only black people could live that way. And he told me that black people would never vote for him because they were too stupid.’’
Portrait
Cohen said Trump was a ‘‘cheat’’, detailing how he directed him to find a straw bidder to buy a portrait of himself that was being auctioned.
It was bought by the fake bidder for US$60,000, he said. Trump then directed the Trump Foundation, a charity, to repay the fake bidder. Trump kept the portrait, said Cohen.
Vietnam
Cohen said Trump asked him to deal with bad publicity about his deferments from the Vietnam War draft. ‘‘Mr Trump claimed it was because of a bone spur but when I asked for medical records he gave me none and said there was no surgery.’’
Cohen says Trump told him: ‘‘You think I’m stupid? I wasn’t going to Vietnam.’’ Cohen added: ‘‘I find it ironic, President Trump, that you are in Vietnam right now.’’ – Telegraph Group