Trump calls for 'long prison term' for former lawyer Michael Cohen in furious rant: 'He lied for this outcome'

President Donald Trump has lashed out at his former personal lawyer, saying that he should serve a "full and complete sentence" instead of a reduced sentence for helping special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Mr Trump's attack on Michael Cohen came on Monday morning, just days after the lawyer pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about negotiations between Russian officials and the Trump Organisation about a planned real estate development in Moscow. He said that he had lied when he said that negotiations had stopped before the 2016 Republican primaries, and had done so for political reasons related to Mr Trump's presidential campaign.

"You mean he can do all of the TERRIBLE, unrelated to Trump, things having to do with fraud, big loans, Taxis, etc., and not serve a long prison term? He makes up stories to get a GREAT & ALREADY reduced deal for himself, and get his wife and father-in-law (who has the money?) off Scott Free," Mr Trump tweeted. "He lied for this outcome and should, in my opinion, serve a full and complete sentence".

Cohen admitted last week to having lied to Congress during testimony when he said that Mr Trump had no business or financial ties to Russia during the Republican primaries in 2016, even though he kept Mr Trump and his family updated on ongoing negotiations for a Trump Tower Moscow project through June 2016. Mr Trump, in early 2016, had told reporters himself that he had no ties to Russia, but appeared to defend potential Russian ties last week after the Cohen news broke in saying that he was still a businessman during the 2016 campaign.

"He's a weak person, and not a very smart person," Mr Trump said last week before flying to Argentina for the G20 summit. "Here's the thing, even if he was right, it doesn't matter because I was allowed to do whatever I wanted during the campaign. I was running my business, a lot of different things during the campaign".

Cohen's guilty plea was accompanied by a statement from his lawyer indicating that he plans on continuing to cooperate with the Mueller probe, and that he had already sat for dozens of hours of interviews with investigators.

Cohen had previously pleaded guilty to eight felony charges, including financial fraud and felony campaign finance violations. In court documents, Cohen said that he had violated campaign finance laws in the run up to the 2016 election by paying hush money to two women who allegedly had affairs with Mr Trump. Cohen claims that he made those payments at the behest of Mr Trump, but the president has repeatedly denied any knowledge of those payments.

Mr Mueller's team has brought charges against several associates of the presidents, as well as at least a dozen Russian individuals or entities.

Last week, the special counsel's office alleged that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort had violated a plea agreement by lying to investigators.

Those allegations could lead to further jail time for Mr Manafort. He has denied intentionally lying or misleading investigators.