Trump ex-lawyer pleads guilty to lying over Russia deal

Trump denounced his former fixer slamming Cohen as a weak person and accusing him of lying to get reduced sentence

NEW YORK: President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty Thursday to lying to Congress over the ongoing Russia investigation in connection with a Moscow real-estate deal and Russian contacts pursued during the 2016 election.

The 52-year-old, for years one of the Republican billionaire's closest aides, left court in New York, ignoring questions from reporters and got wordlessly into the back of a vehicle before being driven away.

He admitted one count of making false statements relating to a real-estate deal at the roughly hour-long hearing, an official confirmed.

The Trump Tower deal —which never got off the ground — has been a focus of an investigation into whether the Trump campaign conspired with Russian operatives during the 2016 campaign, The New York Times reported.

Cohen admitted to making "false, fictitious and fraudulent" written testimony to Congress in August 2017 in connection with the project.
He lied to suggest that the project was shelved in January 2016 — before the first caucus and primary voting began in the presidential election —to downplay links between the deal and unnamed associates and in the hope of limiting the Russia investigation, according to court documents.



Contrary to his statements, the project was discussed multiple times within the company — beyond January 2016 — and with efforts to obtain Russian governmental approval being discussed as late as June of that year.

Trump ultimately secured the Republican nomination for president just weeks later in July 2016.

Trump denounced his former fixer, slamming Cohen as a "weak person" and accused him of lying to get a reduced sentence.

"He is lying about a project that everybody knew about," Trump told reporters at the White House.

"Mr Cohen has cooperated, Mr Cohen will continue to cooperate. Sentencing is set for December 12," said Guy Petrillo, one of Cohen's lawyers.

Cohen also mulled traveling to Russia in connection with the project and in May 2016 was offered a possible introduction to either the Russian president or prime minister on the sidelines of a Russian forum in June 2016.

Lawyer Lanny Davis confirmed two months ago that Cohen had been providing "critical information" to investigators working for Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose probe has been one of the sharpest thorns in Trump's side.



Cohen began talking to the Mueller investigation after pleading guilty in August to bank fraud and campaign finance violations in a separate deal with prosecutors in New York.

Mueller is investigating whether the Trump election campaign in 2016 colluded with Russian efforts to damage his opponent, Hillary Clinton, and whether Trump has sought to illegally obstruct the investigation.

The span of the investigation also reportedly encompasses Trump's business dealings, to which Cohen had a front row seat as a senior executive in the president's real estate business in New York, the Trump Organization.

Once known as Trump's "pit bull" and right-hand man, Cohen was privy to multi-million-dollar deals and payments to two alleged lovers — whose claims could have potentially sabotaged his boss's 2016 election.

In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to charges involving his arrangement of payouts of hush money to those women — widely thought to be porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal — before the 2016 election.

Hanging Trump out to dry, Cohen testified under oath in court that the president had directed him to break campaign finance law, while pleading guilty to bank and tax fraud.