Congressional Democrats on Friday warned that other associates of President Donald Trump may have lied to Congress, a day after his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to doing so as part of a probe of Russian meddling in U. S. politics.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Congressional Democrats on Friday warned that other associates of President Donald Trump may have lied to Congress, a day after his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to doing so as part of a probe of Russian meddling in U. S. politics.
Lawmakers did not level direct accusations at individuals, but the Cohen plea elevated their interest in the veracity of past statements by Trump allies and Trump himself, who was attending the Group of 20 global leaders summit in Argentina.
The Russian meddling probe, led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, has clouded Trump’s presidency for many months. As the latest developments raised pressure on Trump, he defended his business dealings in Russia when he was running for president.
In early morning Twitter messages from Buenos Aires, Trump said he had “lightly looked” at a real estate project “somewhere in Russia” during his presidential bid, saying it was “very legal & very cool” to do so while campaigning.
Throughout his campaign Trump downplayed his Russian business interests. Cohen pleaded guilty on Thursday to lying to Congress about the timing of efforts to pursue a proposed Trump Organization skyscraper project in Moscow.
Those efforts continued well into the presidential campaign, ending in June 2016, after Trump had clinched the Republican presidential nomination, not in January 2016, before voting in the Republican primaries was underway, as Cohen admitted he had earlier told congressional committees.
At the center of the Mueller investigation, and parallel inquiries by congressional committees, are questions about the extent of Russian hacking in the 2016 election, whether Russia colluded with the Trump campaign and any obstruction of justice.
