Trump denies report
Several sources allege president tried to put ally in charge of probe
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Tuesday denied a report that he asked former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker if an ally could undo his recusal in an investigation of his former personal attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen.
Longtime Trump ally Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, had already recused himself from the Cohen case at the point of Mr. Trump’s request. But the president wanted him to oversee an investigation into Mr. Trump, Mr. Cohen and payments made during the 2016 campaign to several women to keep them quiet about alleged extramarital affairs with Mr. Trump.
The New York Times first reported the alleged request, citing “several American officials with direct knowledge of the call.”
“No,” the president said when asked about the report during a
space policy event in the Oval Office, “I don’t know who gave you that. There’s a lot of fake news out there. No, I didn’t” ask Mr. Whitaker if Mr. Berman could be put in charge of the Cohen investigation.
While special counsel Robert Mueller is looking into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia and whether the president obstructed the investigation, the president also plays a central role in a separate case in New York, where prosecutors have implicated him in a crime.
The prosecutors say Mr. Trump directed Mr. Cohen to make illegal hush-money payments to two women as a way to quash potential sex scandals during the campaign. New York prosecutors also are looking into Mr. Trump’s inaugural fund.
The Times reported that Mr. Whitaker — who had privately told associates that part of his role at the Justice Department was to “jump on a grenade” for the president — knew he could not put Mr. Berman in charge because Mr. Berman had already recused himself from the investigation. The president soon soured on Mr. Whitaker and complained about his inability to pull levers at the Justice Department that could make the president’s many legal problems go away.
A Justice Department spokeswoman said Tuesday that the White House had not asked Mr. Whitaker to interfere in the investigations.
“Under oath to the House Judiciary Committee, then Acting Attorney General Whitaker stated that ‘at no time has the White House asked for nor have I provided any promises or commitments concerning the special counsel’s investigation or any other investigation,’” said the spokeswoman, Kerri Kupec. “Mr. Whitaker stands by his testimony.”
In April, the FBI raided the Manhattan office and residences of Mr. Cohen — the president’s lawyer and fixer — walking off with business records, emails and other documents dating back years. At first, Mr. Trump was not concerned.
The president told advisers that the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, assured him at the time that the Cohen investigation had nothing to do with him. In the president’s recounting, Mr. Rosenstein told him that the inquiry in New York was about Mr. Cohen’s business dealings, that it did not involve the president and that it was not about Russia. Since then, Mr. Trump has asked his advisers if Mr. Rosenstein was deliberately misleading him to keep him calm.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s longtime friend and personal lawyer, initially portrayed Mr. Cohen as “honest,” and the president praised him publicly. But Mr. Cohen soon told prosecutors in New York how Mr. Trump had ordered him during the 2016 campaign to buy the silence of women who claimed they had sex with Mr. Trump. In a separate bid for leniency, Mr. Cohen told Mr. Mueller’s prosecutors about Mr. Trump’s participation in negotiations during the height of the presidential campaign to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.
Mr. Trump was now battling twin investigations that seemed to be moving ever close to him. And Mr. Cohen, once the president’s fiercest defender, was becoming his chief tormentor.