Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer has admitted he was pursuing a project to build a Trump tower in Russia deep into the 2016 presidential campaign and later misled Congress about th
Harriet Alexander
November 30 2018 2:30 AM
Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer has admitted he was pursuing a project to build a Trump tower in Russia deep into the 2016 presidential campaign and later misled Congress about the discussions.
Michael Cohen, who once said he would take a bullet for Mr Trump, yesterday pleaded guilty to misleading Congress and made a string of new revelations about the project in Moscow.
Court documents showed that while Cohen claimed the project ended in January 2016 – before the first primary vote in the Republican presidential campaign – he actually pursued it until June 2016.
Cohen admitted he talked to Mr Trump – identified as ‘Individual 1’ in court documents – about the building project more than the three times he had previously disclosed.
He also said he briefed members of the Trump family.
Emails showed that Cohen agreed to visit Russia to discuss the deal in May 2016 and that there appeared to be a discussion about getting Mr Trump to also visit the country during the campaign.
Cohen gave the misleading statements, made to two congressional committees last year, to give the “false impression” that the project had ended before the first Republican primary vote in 2016, according to court documents.
Taken together, the revelations show that the Trump team was pursuing a building project in Russia for months longer during the 2016 election campaign than had previously been admitted.
That raises questions of whether there was a financial incentive to get close to the Kremlin, which could play a role in the approval of such a major building project in the country’s capital.
Mr Trump dismissed the developments, saying that Cohen was lying in an attempt to reduce a previous criminal sentence.
He also said there would be nothing wrong with pursuing a business deal while running for president.
“Cohen is a weak person and not a very smart person,” Mr Trump told reporters outside the White House.
“He’s got himself a big prison sentence.
“And he’s trying to get a much lesser prison sentence by making up this story.
