WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trumps former personal lawyer is planning to tell a House committee that Trump knew ahead of time that WikiLeaks had emails damaging to Hillary Clintons presidential campaign and that Trump is a racist, a conman and a cheat.
Michael Cohen suggests that Trump also implicitly told him to lie about a Moscow real estate project. Cohen has pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the project, which he says Trump knew about as Cohen was negotiating with Russia during the 2016 election campaign.
The hearing is expected to provide the most damning depiction to date of Trumps campaign and business operations from a onetime member of the presidents inner circle. It is the latest step in Cohens evolution from legal fixer for the president he once boasted that hed take a bullet for Trump to a foe who has implicated him in federal campaign finance violations.
Cohen says Trump did not directly tell him to lie, but he would look me in the eye and tell me theres no business in Russia and then go out and lie to the American people by saying the same thing.
Cohen says that in his way, he was telling me to lie.
Federal prosecutors in New York have said Trump directed Cohen to arrange the payments to buy the silence of porn actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal in the run-up to the 2016 campaign. Cohen told a judge that he agreed to cover up Trumps dirty deeds out of blind loyalty.
Cohen says in his prepared testimony that he lied to the first lady, Melania Trump, about the affairs. Trump has denied that he had the affairs.
Lying to the first lady is one of my biggest regrets, he says. She is a kind, good person. I respect her greatly and she did not deserve that.
He adds that lawyers for Trump had reviewed and edited the statement in which Cohen falsely said a proposal for a Trump Tower in Moscow had been abandoned in January 2016. Cohen has since said he continued pursuing the project for Trump for months after that.
Cohen has since said he continued pursuing the project for Trump for months after that. doned in January 2016. Cohen has since said he continued pursuing the project for Trump for months after that.
