As President Trump left for the G-20 summit in Argentina, he weighed in on his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen’s guilty plea to making false statements to Congress, made Thursday morning.
“Michael Cohen is lying and he’s trying to get a reduced sentence for things that have nothing to do with me,” the president said as he left the White House Thursday morning. He added that Cohen “is not a very smart person.”
Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about a Trump real estate project in Russia, CBS News confirmed. Cohen worked as Mr. Trump’s lawyer for years, and his deep knowledge of the president’s business dealing makes him a key person for Mueller’s investigation.
Asked why he would employ someone whom he deemed incompetent for so long, Mr. Trump said Cohen did him “a favor a long time ago.”
Mr. Trump spent part of his morning Thursday tweeting his frustrations with Mueller’s investigation.
“When will this illegal Joseph McCarthy style Witch Hunt, one that has shattered so many innocent lives, ever end-or will it just go on forever? After wasting more than $40,000,000 (is that possible?), it has proven only one thing-there was NO Collusion with Russia. So Ridiculous!” the president tweeted early Thursday.
Mr. Trump has distanced himself from Cohen, who testified in court in a separate case that the president directed him to carry out what amounted to campaign finance violations. Cohen pleaded guilty to those campaign finance violations over the summer.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
