Monday, 23rd December 2024

Trump slams ex-lawyer Cohen’s testimony as ‘shameful’

President Donald Trump criticized the congressional testimony of his former lawyer Michael Cohen as “shameful” and accused Cohen of lying “a lot."

Thursday, 28th February 2019

President Donald Trump criticized the congressional testimony of his former lawyer Michael Cohen as “shameful” and accused Cohen of lying “a lot."

"He lied a lot," Trump told a press conference in Vietnam after his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Trump called the hearing "a fake hearing" and blasted the committee for holding it during his denuclearization talks with Kim.

"He didn’t lie about one thing: He said no collusion with the Russian hoax," Trump said.

“I was actually impressed he didn’t say I think there was collusion for this reason or that,” Trump said. “… I was a little impressed by that frankly.”

Trump’s remarks Thursday came just hours after Cohen, during extraordinary testimony before a House committee, branded Trump as a “con man” and a racist and accused him of criminal wrongdoing.

Trump insisted that Cohen's testimony Wednesday had provided no evidence of collusion by the Trump campaign with Russia in the 2016 US election.

Cohen told the lawmakers he had no direct knowledge of collusion but that he had suspicions.

The president complained that the testimony took place during the summit with Kim.

"I think having a fake hearing like that and having it in the middle of this very important summit is really a terrible thing," Trump said.

Trump again insisted the probe into Russian collusion is a "hoax" and a "witchhunt."

Cohen told the congressional panel that Trump knew in advance that WikiLeaks planned to release stolen emails damaging to political rival Hillary Clinton.

Cohen said Trump personally reimbursed Cohen for an illegal hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels and testified the president indirectly encouraged him to lie to Congress about his pursuit of a potentially lucrative Trump Tower development in Moscow – even as Trump repeatedly denied any business interests in Russia throughout the 2016 campaign.

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