Buzzfeed: Trump Instructed His Lawyer To Lie To Congress

Donald Trump

Buzzfeed is reporting that Donald Trump instructed his former 'fixer,' Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress regarding plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

The Buzzfeed article is said to be based on "interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents."

President Donald Trump directed his longtime attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, according to two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter.

Trump also supported a plan, set up by Cohen, to visit Russia during the presidential campaign, in order to personally meet President Vladimir Putin and jump-start the tower negotiations. “Make it happen,” the sources said Trump told Cohen.

And even as Trump told the public he had no business deals with Russia, the sources said Trump and his children Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. received regular, detailed updates about the real estate development from Cohen, whom they put in charge of the project.

Cohen pleaded guilty in November to lying about the deal in testimony and in a two-page statement to the Senate and House intelligence committees. Special counsel Robert Mueller noted that Cohen’s false claim that the project ended in January 2016 was an attempt to “minimize links between the Moscow Project and Individual 1” — widely understood to be Trump — “in hopes of limiting the ongoing Russia investigations.”

Now the two sources have told BuzzFeed News that Cohen also told the special counsel that after the election, the president personally instructed him to lie — by claiming that negotiations ended months earlier than they actually did — in order to obscure Trump’s involvement.

There's much more at the link.

Trump's current lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, responded to the report saying, “If you believe Cohen I can get you a great deal on the Brooklyn Bridge.”

But as many point out, the Buzzfeed report doesn't rely on information from Cohen.

The report dropped at 10:11pm ET last night, so the Trumpster came out swinging this morning on Twitter:

Kevin Corke, @FoxNews “Don’t forget, Michael Cohen has already been convicted of perjury and fraud, and as recently as this week, the Wall Street Journal has suggested that he may have stolen tens of thousands of dollars....” Lying to reduce his jail time! Watch father-in-law!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2019

Folks are now looking back at the testimony Trump's nominee for Attorney General, William Barr, gave this week with new eyes as he was directly asked if "a president persuading a person to commit perjury would be obstruction?"

Klobuchar: A president persuading a person to commit perjury would be obstruction. Is that right?

Barr: Yes

Klobuchar: You also said that a president, or any person, convincing a witness to change testimony would be obstruction. Is that right?

Barr: Yespic.twitter.com/ShOnieTqfF

— Hardball (@hardball) January 18, 2019

The allegation that the President of the United States may have suborned perjury before our committee in an effort to curtail the investigation and cover up his business dealings with Russia is among the most serious to date. We will do what’s necessary to find out if it’s true. https://t.co/GljBAFqOjh

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) January 18, 2019

Those of us in law enforcement call this obstruction of justice. You go to prison if convicted. https://t.co/x6mTVL6qHR

— Andrew Janz (@JanzAndrew) January 18, 2019