Michael Cohen to accuse Trump Moscow project, Wikileaks

Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, will tell Congress on Wednesday that Trump knew his longtime adviser Roger Stone was communicating with WikiLeaks about publishing stolen emails from the Democratic National Committee, according to the text of his prepared opening statement.

Cohen will also say that Trump directed negotiations for a real estate project in Moscow even as he campaigned for the presidency and publicly stated he had no business interests in Russia.

In the prepared remarks, Cohen calls Trump a “racist,” a “conman” and a “cheat” and also level accusations that the president personally signed a check to cover “hush money payments” to keep quiet an affair with adult-film actress Stormy Daniels.

Trump has denied any collusion between his campaign and Moscow, and dismisses the Mueller probe as a “witch hunt”.

Trump, who is in Vietnam for his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, accused Cohen of lying in a tweet sent early Wednesday morning.

“Michael Cohen was one of many lawyers who represented me (unfortunately). He had other clients also. He was just disbarred by the State Supreme Court for lying & fraud,” Trump tweeted. “He did bad things unrelated to Trump. He is lying in order to reduce his prison time. Using Crooked’s lawyer!”

Stone was indicted last month for lying, obstruction and witness tampering in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump has denied ever talking with Stone about WikiLeaks.

The person familiar with the testimony said Cohen does not have other evidence, such as contemporaneous memos, to support his recollection of the call he claims to have overheard between Stone and the president.

Cohen has pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations related to the payments to Daniels. Trump claims he never told Cohen to send money to the adult film actress.

“He asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair and to lie to his wife about it, which I did. Lying to the First Lady is one of my biggest regrets. She is a kind, good person. I respect her greatly – and she did not deserve that,” his remarks say.