Trump’s ex-lawyer in $20m fraud inquiry
Former key White House aide embroiled in financial claims as Trump hits out at inquiry into Russia links
Michael Cohen, once a key aide to Donald Trump, is being investigated over $20 million (£15.7m) of loans obtained by taxi firms linked to him and his family, according to claims that will send shockwaves through the White House. Mr Cohen is known to have built significant investments in taxi medallions – the licences to operate New York cabs. The New York Times, citing business records and informed sources, said the inquiry is into loans from two financial bodies.
MICHAEL COHEN, Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, is being investigated over $20 million (£15.7m) of loans obtained by taxi companies owned by him and his family, according to The New York Times.
His close relationship with the president and the Trump Organisation have made Mr Cohen a pivotal figure in the slew of investigations into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Federal prosecutors in New York are reportedly investigating him for possible bank and tax fraud, as well as a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Mr Cohen has not been charged with any crime. He and his lawyers declined to comment when contacted by The New York Times. Details of the size of the investigation come at a time when Mr Trump has revealed his fury at federal prosecutors picking their way through his team.
Earlier, the president said the investigation into his 2016 campaign’s links with Russia makes “Joseph Mccarthy look like a baby” as he lashed out at reports that the White House’s most senior legal adviser has been drawn into the inquiry. Sending an unusually long string of tweets, the president appeared to be rattled by revelations in The New York Times that Don Mcgahn, White House counsel, spent more than 30 hours talking to agents in voluntary interviews.
Mr Mcgahn is reported to have described the president’s anger at the investigation and the ways in which he asked his legal team to respond. That anger was on full display yesterday, when Mr Trump compared Robert Mueller’s investigation with the Fifties hunt for communists led by Senator Joseph Mccarthy, an episode that is remembered today as a dark period in America’s history.
“Study the late Joseph Mccarthy, because we are now in a period with Mueller and his gang that make Joseph Mccarthy look like a baby! Rigged Witch Hunt,” wrote Mr Trump.
Last week, Mr Trump’s critics accused him of Mccarthyism as he stripped the security clearance of John Brennan, the former CIA director.
The exchanges have become part of a regular routine: newspapers publish new details of Mr Mueller’s probe; the president fires off early morning Twitter broadsides; then his cheerleaders take to Sunday morning TV shows to fling back accusations of a witch hunt. Rudy Giuliani, Mr Trump’s personal lawyer, appeared on NBC’S Meet the Press soon after Mr Trump’s tweets, but the debate threatened to descend into farce as he tried to suggest that there was no such thing as objective truth.
Mr Giuliani pushed back against demands that Mr Trump himself testify before the Mueller inquiry saying he could be sucked into a he-said, she-said squabble. “When you tell me that, you know, he should testify because he’s going to tell the truth and he shouldn’t worry, well that’s so silly because it’s somebody’s version of the truth. Not the truth,” he said.
William Burck, a lawyer for Mr Mcgahn, said: “President Trump, through counsel, declined to assert any privilege over Mr Mcgahn’s testimony, so Mr Mcgahn answered the Special Counsel team’s questions fulsomely and honestly, as any person interviewed by federal investigators must.”