Africa Map

African Press Agency

African Press Agency Logo
   

 Home
 Country Profile
 Useful Links
 Contact us

Trump/RussiaBack
[Published: Saturday January 19 2019]

Trump asked Cohen to lie to Congress about building a Trump Tower in Moscow

WASHINGTON, 19 Jan. - (ANA) - President Donald Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, according to online news site BuzzFeed, which cited two federal law enforcement officials involved in investigating the matter.

 
NBC News has not independently confirmed the report, which was published on Thursday night.
 
Cohen, who was Trump's personal lawyer and fixer for years, pleaded guilty in November to lying to Congress about the proposed Trump real estate project in Russia and the extent of the president's involvement in and knowledge of that deal. The project never came to fruition.
 
He talked to Senate and House investigators about the Moscow tower negotiations in October 2017.
 
Prosecutors said Cohen lied in order to minimise links between Trump and his Moscow building project, and to give the false impression that the project had died before the Iowa caucuses in February 2016, the first contest on the path toward a presidential nomination.
 
After Cohen's plea, Trump accused his former fixer of lying about his admissions in order to "get a reduced sentence".
 
"He's a weak person and not a very smart person", Trump said.
 
When Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison in December it was for several crimes, including campaign finance violations he said Trump directed him to carry out.
 
According to the BuzzFeed report, the two law enforcement sources said Cohen told Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller's team that Trump personally told him to lie in order to hide the real estate mogul's ties to the Moscow negotiations. Mueller is investigating potential links between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
 
The White House did not respond to a request for comment from CNBC sent late Thursday.
 
The Washington Post quoted Trump's current lawyer, Rudy Giuliani , as saying, "If you believe Cohen I can get you a great deal on the Brooklyn Bridge." He gave a similar response to The Associated Press and NBC News.
 
BuzzFeed reported that Mueller's office learned about Trump's alleged order for Cohen to lie through "interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents." Cohen, the report said, then subsequently acknowledged that directive.
 
Lanny Davis, who is Cohen's legal and communications advisor, declined to comment on the BuzzFeed story "out of respect for Mr. Mueller's and the Office of Special Counsel's investigation."
 
AB/ANA/

North South News website

Advertise banner

News icon UK/Coffee
News icon Russia/Sweden
News icon UK/Third World War
News icon Euribor/Court of Appeal
News icon Eurojust/UK/Painting
News icon Israel/Iran
News icon Israel/Iran
News icon Google/Staff Protest
News icon Germa/Gaza Genocide
News icon EU/Lobby Register

AFRICAN PRESS AGENCY Copyright © 2005 - 2007