President Donald Trump claimed Friday his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen asked him directly for a pardon and lied about it, contradicting Cohen’s dramatic testimony before the House Oversight Committee last month.
Cohen quickly shot back, calling the president a liar.
“Bad lawyer and fraudster Michael Cohen said under sworn testimony that he never asked for a Pardon. His lawyers totally contradicted him. He lied! Additionally, he directly asked me for a pardon. I said NO. He lied again! He also badly wanted to work at the White House. He lied!” Trump wrote Friday on Twitter.
The tweet comes after Cohen, who was sentenced in December to three years in prison for a number of lying and tax fraud charges, turned against his former employer, publicly accusing Trump of several criminal acts, lies and character deficiencies. During the testimony, Cohen stated he “have never asked for, nor would I accept, a pardon from Mr. Trump.”
But his current lawyer, Lanny Davis, claimed Thursday that Cohen had indeed directed his prior attorney to explore a potential pardon with Trump’s team.
“Prior to Michael Cohen’s decision to leave the ‘Joint Defense Group’ and tell the truth on July 2, 2018, Michael was open to the ongoing ‘dangling’ of a possible pardon by Trump representatives privately and in the media,” Davis said in a statement. “During that time period, he directed his attorney to explore possibilities of a pardon at one point with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani as well as other lawyers advising President Trump.”
On Friday, Cohen almost immediately refuted Trump’s accusation. “Just another set of lies by @POTUS @realdonaldtrump. Mr. President…let me remind you that today is #InternationalWomensDay. You may want use today to apologize for your own #lies and #DirtyDeeds to women like Karen McDougal and Stephanie Clifford.”
Rep. Elijah Cummings, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, appeared unimpressed with Trump’s public sparring with Cohen.
“He can pick up the phone and call me,” Cummings told reporters of Trump.
During the House hearing, Republican lawmakers accused Cohen of being a serial liar and insinuated Cohen turned on Trump out of bitterness over not getting a job at the White House. Cohen rebutted that, saying he was satisfied to serve as Trump’s personal lawyer and never sought any official administration position.
Cohen will begin his prison sentence May 6.
Andrew Desiderio and Darren Samuelsohn contributed to this report.
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine
Source: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/08/trump-cohen-pardon-1213081
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