President Donald Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani stated on Sunday that it’s “possible” the President spoke to his former attorney, Michael Cohen, ahead of his congressional testimony.
“Which would be perfectly normal,” Giuliani said on CNN’s “State of the Union”. “So what?”
“As far as I know, President Trump did not have discussions with him,” he added. “Certainly, no discussions with him in which he told him or counseled him to lie.”
Last week BuzzFeed News reported that Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress about a deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. The report claimed that special counsel Robert Mueller’s office had evidence to prove the claim; however, the special counsel’s office disputed the accuracy of the story, calling the “characterization … not accurate.”
Giuliani on Sunday maintained that the Buzzfeed story was “phony” and “scandalous … fake news.”
However, he said although he had no knowledge of such conversations, the President may have discussed Cohen’s testimony with him without directing him to lie.
“If he had any discussions with him, they’d be about the version of the events that Michael Cohen gave them which they all believe was true,” Giuliani said.
Giuliani said during a separate appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he is “100 percent certain” that Trump never once asked Cohen to do anything but tell the truth to Congress.
“I can tell you his counsel to Michael Cohen throughout that entire period was, ‘Tell the truth’. We thought he was telling the truth. I still believe he may have been telling the truth when he testified before Congress,” he told host Chuck Todd.
Cohen pleaded guilty in November to lying to Congress about plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow and signed a plea deal with Mueller’s office. Cohen said he was lying when he told Congress in an August 2017 letter that “the Moscow Project ended in January 2016,” before the Iowa caucuses. According to Cohen, discussions on the project were still happening in June 2016.
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