Donald Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress on Thursday as part of a plea bargain with Robert Mueller.
The president’s former long-time “fixer” turned state’s witness admitted to making false statements last year about a now-defunct Trump real estate project in Moscow that he worked on months into Trump’s presidential campaign. President Trump fired back, calling Cohen “weak” and alleging that he was “lying” to get a lighter sentence.
Cohen pleads guilty to lying
Cohen made a surprise appearance in U.S. District Court in Manhattan Thursday to lodge his guilty plea. The former friend and lawyer of Trump said that he gave misleading statements to Congress about his work on a Trump Tower project in Russia. “I made these misstatements to be consistent with Individual 1’s political messaging and out of loyalty to Individual 1,” he said, referring to Trump.
In August of 2017, Cohen wrote a letter to Congress, which was investigating interference in the election, in which he claimed that the real estate project stopped in January of 2016, that he had not discussed the project at any length with others in the Trump Organization or with Russian officials, and that he had never suggested traveling to Russia to Trump.
Cohen contradicted his previous statements Thursday, admitting to continuing work on the project until June of 2016, when Trump was a presumptive presidential nominee, and saying that he lied about talking to Trump and Russian officials about the plan, including discussions with Trump about traveling to Russia.
The special counsel alleges that “The Moscow Project was discussed multiple times within the company and did not end in January 2016” and that Cohen had agreed to travel to Russia and asked Trump to go there as well, although Mueller did not indicate whether Trump thought about the travel proposal.
Cohen has been a cooperating witness in Mueller’s probe and has reportedly given hours of testimony to the special counsel. His plea deal comes with the condition of further cooperation with Mueller on “any and all matters” relevant to his investigation. Three Mueller prosecutors were at the courtroom when he entered his plea.
“Hysterical” media, left pounces
The Cohen guilty plea sent the “resistance” media into predictable overdrive, as pundits began airing predictions of Trump’s imminent downfall. Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani called the coverage “hysterical.”
The media went into a similar frenzy over the summer when Cohen turned against his former boss, pleading guilty in August to paying off Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, two women who allegedly had affairs with Trump, at Trump’s direction in violation of campaign finance law. But fevered speculation about Trump’s imminent demise has so far proven premature.
Cohen is the latest Trump associate to plead guilty in Mueller’s probe. Like the other guilty pleas Mueller has snagged so far, though, it is for lying to investigators, a process crime, rather than conspiracy. There was also no indication that Cohen lied at Trump’s direction.
Still, the left pounced on Cohen’s plea, with House and Senate Democrats including Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) demanding that Cohen appear before Congress for fresh testimony.
What’s the big deal?
Trump mocked the alleged seriousness of the plea in a tweet Friday. Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Trump called Cohen “weak,” and “not a very smart person” and accused him of “lying” to get a reduced sentence “for things that have nothing to do with me.” Trump and his attorneys have insisted that there was nothing untoward about the real estate project, with the president saying that the project was no secret and that he gave it up to run for president.
“Everybody knew about it. It was written about in newspapers. It was a well-known project,” Trump said. “There would be nothing wrong if I did do it. I was running my business while I was campaigning. There was a good chance that I wouldn’t have won, in which case I would have gone back into the business, and why should I lose lots of opportunities?”
Trump reiterated his response on social media, with a two-part tweet on Friday:
Oh, I get it! I am a very good developer, happily living my life, when I see our Country going in the wrong direction (to put it mildly). Against all odds, I decide to run for President & continue to run my business-very legal & very cool, talked about it on the campaign trail…….Lightly looked at doing a building somewhere in Russia. Put up zero money, zero guarantees and didn’t do the project. Witch Hunt!
Cohen will be sentenced Dec. 12 for previous campaign finance charges, but the new plea is expected to carry no prison time.
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