- Former Trump fixer ‘made claims in 12-page memo to senior House Democrats’
- ‘Cohen’s attorneys say Trump asked him to lie ‘various times’ in coded language’
- Trump allegedly said to be happy with the lies and had his attorney thank Cohen
- Comes as disgraced lawyer looks to have three-year prison sentence reduced
Michael Cohen has accused President Trump of instructing him to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Russia.
Former Donald Trump fixer Michael Cohen has claimed the president used coded language to encourage him to lie under oath, according to reports
The allegations come in a 12-page memo sent to senior House Democrats in a bid to have Cohen’s three-year prison sentence reduced.
‘In fact, Mr. Cohen has recently obtained a hard drive with 14 million files from his computers and phones over the past 10 years, which we believe has significant value to the various congressional oversight and investigation committees. Yet Michael Cohen is the only person in the Trump organization who has been prosecuted.
‘The actions against Mr. Cohen appears to be selective prosecution and the sentence imposed is a disproportionate one. For him to surrender in 30 days would be a detriment to committees search for truth, as well as a miscarriage of justice.’
The 12-page memo corroborates a BuzzFeed report published in January that
‘Cohen explained that he was, in effect, instructed to lie about the January 31, 2016 date through the use of Trump code words that could only be interpreted as an instruction or ‘directive’,’ the memo states, ‘to cover-up the fact that Cohen had been in contact with Russians during most of the presidential campaign, from the day of the Iowa caucuses, February 1, through all the primaries and caucuses and until June 2016, after Trump had become the putative Republican nominee by assembling a majority of
delegates.’
The memo also claims Trump’s attorney called Cohen and congratulated him for lying to the House and Senate Intelligence committees, and said the then-Republican frontrunner was ‘happy with Cohen’s testimony’, according to the news outlet.
In a statement, lawyer Davis said: ‘Michael Cohen’s recent public and closed-door testimony to Congressional committees has triggered additional areas for investigation by law enforcement authorities and the Congress.