Feud Escalates As Trump Calls Cohen a Liar Who Makes Up Stories

President Donald Trump on Friday angrily attacked his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who yesterday said he is ready to testify to special counsel Robert Mueller that the president had direct knowledge of the critical 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russian agents.

“And so the Fake News doesn’t waste my time with dumb questions, NO,….I did NOT know of the meeting with my son, Don jr. Sounds to me like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out of an unrelated jam (Taxi cabs maybe?). He even retained Bill and Crooked Hillary’s lawyer. Gee, I wonder if they helped him make the choice!”

Trump’s reference to an “unrelated jam” concerns the possible legal jeopardy that Cohen now faces after the FBI raided his office, home and hotel room in April. The former Trump lawyer is facing significant financial difficulties as well as a possible criminal tax fraud investigation with respect to his taxicab medallion business in New York City.

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In his Twitter attack on his former fixer, Trump also hinted that Bill and Hillary Clinton were responsible for Cohen’s new attitude toward Trump and his possible willingness to “flip” on his former boss and cooperate with prosecutors. “He even retained Bill and Crooked Hillary’s lawyer,” Trump wrote. “Gee, I wonder if they helped him make the choice!”

Cohen several weeks ago contacted longtime Clinton ally Lanny Davis to help him with his legal defense and to take on the president. Since then Davis has been the public voice for Cohen’s defense, playing much the same role that Rudy Giuliani is playing for the president.

After CNN broke the story yesterday, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin made clear that Cohen’s testimony about the president’s advance knowledge of the Trump Tower meeting changes everything, saying:

“If Cohen is telling the truth about this it completely changes our understanding of what Donald Trump’s role was. This meeting in Trump Tower is the clearest example we have so far of a direct connection between the Russian government and the Trump campaign.”

Also on CNN, former FBI special agent Josh Campbell said:

“If Cohen or anyone else can come up with one shred of corroborating information that proves Trump did know, it will be “game over.”

“That could be the spark that burns the whole house down.”

Leo Vidal

I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.