Cohen: I lied for Trump
President Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court Thursday to lying to Congress about plans amid the 2016 campaign to build a Trump Tower in Moscow — potentially with help from the Kremlin.
In a cooperation deal with special counsel Robert Mueller, Trump’s former longtime personal lawyer admitted perjuring himself last year when he downplayed the extent of his discussions about the project with Trump and Trump’s family and falsely claimed he never agreed to travel to Russia or asked Trump to go there.
Cohen also admitted he falsely asserted that the Moscow project had been “abandoned” by the end of January 2016 — ahead of the Iowa caucuses — and that he didn’t have any contact with Russian officials afterward.
In reality, Cohen continued pursuing the deal and was hoping to meet with either Russian President Vladimir Putin or Prime Minister Dimitry Medvedev in St. Petersburg until he canceled the planned trip on June 14, 2016, well into the campaign for the White House, court papers say.
The previous month, Cohen wrote a message to another business partner working on the deal, telling him he anticipated Trump — identified as “Individual 1” — would travel to Russia in connection with the project following the July 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, according to the criminal complaint.
“My trip before Cleveland. [Individual 1] once he becomes the nominee after the convention,” Cohen wrote.
Court papers say Cohen lied in an Aug. 28, 2017, letter to the Senate and House intelligence committees to “minimize links” between Trump and the Moscow project and “in hopes of limiting the ongoing Russia investigation.”
“I made these misstatements to be consistent with Individual 1’s political messaging and out of loyalty to Individual 1,” Cohen said in court.
Cohen, who once boasted that he “would take a bullet” for Trump, didn’t implicate the president in his lies.
Thursday’s court proceeding followed Trump’s submission last week of written answers to Mueller’s questions about his knowledge of
the Russian government’s efforts to aid his campaign.
Cohen, a 52-year-old married father of two, faces up to five years in prison for his guilty plea, which came less than two weeks before his scheduled sentencing for tax fraud and other crimes for which he had previously pleaded guilty.
That conviction is tied to preelection, hush-money payoffs Cohen said he made at Trump’s request to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, both of whom claim to have had affairs with Trump more than a decade ago.
Cohen, who remains free on $500,000 bond, is set to be sentenced in both cases on Dec. 12.
Apparently eager to strike his deal with Mueller, Cohen interrupted Manhattan federal Judge Andrew Carter, saying, “Guilty, Your Honor,” before the jurist finished asking how he wanted to plead. “Sorry,” Cohen said. “That’s fine. Guilty?” Carter asked. “Yes, sir,” Cohen answered. The criminal complaint against Cohen includes details of a 20-minute phone conversation about the Moscow project that he held with the personal assistant to Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
During the Jan. 20, 2016, call, Cohen “requested assistance in moving the project forward, both in securing land to build the proposed tower and financing the proposed construction,” court papers say.
Peskov’s aide “asked detailed questions and took notes, stating that she would follow up with oth- ers in Russia,” court papers say.
The legal filing also cites exchanges between Cohen and “Individual 2,” a reference to Felix Sater, a Russian-born fraudster-turned-informant and former Trump business partner.
One communication took place the day after Cohen’s conversation with the Peskov aide, when Sater asked Cohen to call him, writing, “It’s about [the president of Russia] they called today,” court papers say.
Sater told BuzzFeed News on Thursday that he and Cohen wanted to give Putin a $50 million penthouse in the Moscow tower to seal the deal.
“In Russia, the oligarchs would bend over backwards to live in the same building as Vladimir Putin,” he said.
“My idea was to give a $50 million penthouse to Putin and charge $250 million more for the rest of the units. All the oligarchs would line up to live in the same building as Putin.”
Cohen’s deal with Mueller requires that he continue “to respond and provide truthful information regarding any and all matters as to which this office deems relevant.”
In exchange, prosecutors said, they will describe “the nature and extent of the defendant’s cooperation” when he is sentenced.
Federal guidelines call for Cohen to spend 46 months to 63 months in prison for the hush-money case and up to six months more for lying to Congress.
'I made these misstatements to be consistent with [ President Trump's ] political messaging and out of loyalty to [ him]. '- Michael Cohen