Trump impeachment would mean revolt, says lawyer

Donald Trump's lawyer has said "the American people would revolt" if the president was impeached.

In an interview with a British news outlet, Rudy Giuliani claimed there was "no reason" for an impeachment and called Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen "a liar".

"You could only impeach [Trump] for political reasons and the American people would revolt against that," he said.

Cohen admitted on Tuesday to paying hush money to a porn actress and a model at the request of a "candidate" – revealed by his lawyer to be Donald Trump – in order to influence the 2016 US election campaign.

His lawyer says it is "absolutely clear that Donald Trump committed a felony" in the run-up to the election, and the developments have heightened speculation that the president could be impeached.

Giuliani, however, said he believed Mr Trump has been "completely cleared" by Cohen's testimony, saying it was "inevitable" that he would not be impeached.

"You have this Cohen guy, he doesn't know anything about Russian collusion, he doesn't know anything about obstruction, he's a massive liar," he said.

Giuliani, former mayor of New York, spoke to Sky News during a golfing trip at Balmedie on the Aberdeenshire coast, a course owned by Trump.

His attempt to defend the president and discredit Cohen echoed the claims of Trump and his press secretary Sarah Sanders, who have both dismissed claims of wrongdoing brought by the former lawyer.

The evidence that Trump had been involved in hush money payments includes a tape recording of a conversation from before the presidential election, in which he and Cohen discuss payment to the Playboy model Karen McDougal.

On Thursday Giuliani denied that the recordings were significant, saying: "The tape recordings say very clearly that Cohen did it on his own, didn't tell the president until much later."

He claimed the former lawyer had been "discredited" and would not be able to provide useful information to special counsel Robert Mueller, who is probing accusations of collusion with Russia in the 2016 election.