Trump-Cohen allegations: White House denies president ordered lawyer to lie about Russia links as Congress launches investigations
White House press secretary was also questioned about alleged poll rigging
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The White House has denied allegations that Donald Trump ordered former lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about his plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.
Law enforcement officials claimed Mr Trump had instructed Cohen to claim negotiations over the Russian project ended months earlier than they actually did, according to explosive new claims.
Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders vehemently denied the allegations, reported by Buzzfeed News, during a brief exchange with reporters on the White House driveway.
“Look, that’s absolutely ridiculous,” Ms Sanders said when questioned about the claims. She said the president’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani had addressed the subject and called the report “categorically false”.
In response to the allegations Mr Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani said: “Any suggestion – from any source – that the President counselled Michael Cohen to lie is categorically false” and “today’s claims are just more made-up lies born of Michael Cohen’s malice and desperation, in an effort to reduce his sentence.”
Ms Sanders was also asked whether Donald Trump directed Michael Cohen to rig any polls, referring to the former lawyer’s admission that he paid a small technology firm thousands of dollars in 2015 to rig online polls “at the direction and of the sole benefit” of the president.
“I think again that one statement – those two words – sum it up better than anything anybody else can say, and that is ‘categorically false’,” Ms Sanders responded.
Michael Cohen, who last year pleaded guilty to federal crimes while implicating Mr Trump, admitted to paying between $12,000 and $13,000 to the owner of RedFinch Solutions LLC.
The officials said Cohen confirmed to special counsel Robert Mueller’s team - which is investigating ties between the Trump campaign and Russia - that Mr Trump instructed the attorney to lie to the Senate and House intelligence committees.
Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall – in pictures
Show all 15It prompted immediate calls for the president to resign or face impeachment if the allegations were confirmed by Mr Mueller’s office.
With the US president still mired in deadlock over the government shutdown, the new allegations relating to Mr Cohen – sentenced to three years in prison in December – have prompted calls from top Democrats for his resignation or impeachment.
House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff and House Judiciary Committee chair Jerrold Nadler have both pledged to investigate. Mr Schiff said: “We will do what’s necessary to find out if it’s true”.
Mr Cohen is set to testify before a congressional panel of the House of Representatives on 7 February about his role as Mr Trump’s right-hand man, following FBI special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the president’s alleged ties to Russia.
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Sixteen hours is a long time in Donald Trump coverage, so here's a reminder of the aforementioned Guiliani's comments from last night courtesy of Chris Baynes, in which the lawyer and former mayor of New York City told CNN's Chris Cuomo he "never said there was no collusion" between the president's campaign team and Russia.
He did of course, explicitly telling Fox anchor Sean Hannity last May: “We’re now a year and a half, two years into this, no Russian collusion, case over.”
The president himself said so as recently as 4 January, writing on Twitter: “no Collusion with Russia, it was the Dems that Colluded”.
In other Trump news, the White House has cancelled its delegation's trip to the World Economic Forum's annual bash in the Swiss ski resort of Davos in order to concentrate on resolving the government shutdown, now into its record-breaking 28th day.
The president attended last year, gave a bullish speech on the prospects of the American economy and was roundly booed for his attack on the media. This time he was due to be represented by secretary of state Mike Pompeo and treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin.
The development follows his refusal to grant House speaker Nancy Pelosi the use of a military plane to visit Afghanistan with a team of congressional representatives as the impasse over funding for the president's border wall reaches stagnation point.
Here's Andrew Buncombe with more:
House intelligence committee chair Adam Schiff has pledged to investigate the latest Cohen allegation.
"We will do what's necessary to find out if it's true."
The response from Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis is being branded "a non denial denial" by MSNBC anchor Katy Tur:
Robert Reich, former secretary of labor under Bill Clinton, has warned "impeachment soon begins" for Trump if the allegations are confirmed.
Michael Beschloss, a presidential historian, has pointed out Congress was preparing to impeach Richard Nixon - who resigned before proceedings got underway - for "counselling witnesses with respect to ... false or misleading testimony".
If the allegations are confirmed, this is in effect what Trump did with Cohen.
Comparisons are being made on Twitter between today's story and the moment Watergate special prosecutor Leon Jaworski, appointed by Richard Nixon, heard the president telling his staff to commit perjury on tape, a personal turning point for Mr Jaworski from which there was no return. Could we be witnessing an equivalent moment?
Security analyst Ryan Goodman draws attention to a passage from Jim Doyle's book, Not Above the Law (1977):
"Jaworski reddened. 'Can you imagine that?' he said. 'The President of the United States sitting in his office telling his staff how to commit perjury.' Jaworski spoke of this exchange many times over the next months. It was something he could not accept."
Rudy Giuliani, Trump's lawyer, told CNN of the Buzzfeed story: "If you believe Cohen I can get you a great deal on the Brooklyn Bridge."
The suggestion Cohen is lying to Robert Mueller about being directed by Trump to mislead Congress feels like a particularly weak defence in this case.
The report says Mueller only questioned Cohen about whether he was directed by Trump to lie after the special counsel had gathered evidence from Trump Organization emails and texts indicating exactly that.
Amid the fallout of Cohen's allegations, another crisis is unfolding in slow motion, with Trump still refusing to open the government and now refusing Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, from using federal funds to visit troops in Afghanistan.
Both Trump and Pelosi are flexing their political powers from opposite ends of Pennsylvania Avenue as the negotiations to end the month-long partial government shutdown remain stalled.
In dramatic fashion, Trump issued a letter to Pelosi on Thursday, just before she and other lawmakers were set to depart on the previously undisclosed trip to Afghanistan and Brussels. Trump belittled the trip as a "public relations event" — even though he had just made a similar warzone stop — and said it would be best if Pelosi remained in Washington to negotiate to reopen the government.
"Obviously, if you would like to make your journey by flying commercial, that would certainly be your prerogative," wrote Trump, who had been smarting since Pelosi, the day before, called on him to postpone his 29 January State of the Union address due to the shutdown.
This is the president's last tweet, just hours before the bombshell Cohen report alleging Trump ordered him to lie to Congress was published.
In it, he again goes back to one of his favourite - and relevant - topics; Robert Mueller's investigation.
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