Michael Cohen attacks Trump in final testimony as Democratic chairman calls it 'enormously productive'

'He was fully cooperative with the committee. He answered every question'

Michael Cohen – Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer – has completed several days of scathing testimony about the president, emerging from a closed-door hearing on Capitol Hill to declare the “committee members were satisfied” with the evidence he gave.

On the day he had been due to start a three-year prison sentence after being convicted of paying hush money to two women in violation of campaign finance laws – something he claimed he did to protect Mr Trump – Cohen completed his fourth and final day of testimony before congressional investigators.

“I believe they’re happy and I have given them my assurance that any additional information that they need I will continue to cooperate,” the man who once bragged he would take a bullet for the president said, as he emerged from a hearing of the intelligence committee of the House of Representatives.

The committee’s chairman, Democrat Adam Schiff, sounded even more positive. “He was fully cooperative with the committee,” he said of Cohen. “I think the members found it an enormously productive session.”

The 52-year-old last week delivered a damning attack on the man he once worked for, when he described the president as a conman and a racist as he gave public testimony before the House committee on oversight and reform.

“I am not protecting Mr Trump anymore,” he said. “My loyalty to Mr Trump has cost me everything: my family’s happiness, friendships, my law licence, my company, my livelihood, my honour, my reputation, and soon my freedom. I will not sit back say nothing and allow him to do the same to the country.”

Cohen delivered his words as Mr Trump was in Vietnam for dencuclearisation talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The talks did not progress far, something experts had said was no surprise given that the two sides had failed to even come close to an agreement before the two leaders sat down.

As it was, Mr Trump sought to blame the failure on Cohen’s testimony and the platform given to him by Democrats.

“For the Democrats to interview in open hearings a convicted liar & fraudster, at the same time as the very important Nuclear Summit with North Korea, is perhaps a new low in American politics and may have contributed to the ‘walk’,” Mr Trump tweeted in reference to his claim he had been forced to walk away from the negotiating table. “Never done when a president is overseas. Shame!”

It was not immediately clear what Cohen had said to the committee on Wednesday. CNN said he had provided members with new documents showing edits to the a false written statement he delivered to Congress in 2017 about the Trump Organisation’s pursuit of the Trump Tower Moscow project.

It said documents were provided to further explain his public testimony last week in which he said Mr Trump’s then-personal lawyer, Jay Sekulow, made changes to his statement to the House and Senate intelligence committees.

Cohen is due to go to jail this spring to serve his term after he last year pleaded guilty to charges of tax evasion, bank fraud, and campaign finance violations in relation to hush money payments made to two women, Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, on the eve of the 2016 election.

He also pleaded guilty to a separate charge brought by Robert Mueller’s office that he lied to Congress about discussions over the construction the the planned Trump Tower building in Russia.

Cohen had been due to report to prison on 6 March. Federal judge William Pauley last week granted him an extension until May 6. Cohen’s lawyer said his client required more time to cope with both recovery from a recent surgical procedure and to prepare for testimony on Capitol Hill.