[ad_1]
President Donald Trump on Friday issued a new rebuttal against his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, claiming that he did not know in advance of a June 2016 meeting in which the Russians had promised to provide mud to Hillary Clinton. statement, made by Trump in the tweets of the morning, aggravates the public quarrel between the president and his long-time fixer. He is on the heels of a CNN report on Thursday night saying that Cohen said he was ready to testify that the then-candidate, Trump, knew in advance of the meeting. Trump Tower in 2016.
"I did not know the meeting with son, Don jr," Trump told Twitter on Friday morning.
He castigated Cohen without naming him, saying, "It seems to me that someone is trying to tell stories in order to get out of an unrelated jam (He even retained the services of Bill and Crooked Hillary's lawyer, but I wonder if they helped him make his choice! "
Lanny Davis, a longtime friend and Clinton advisor, is one of Cohen's lawyers.] Cohen is under federal investigation for bank fraud as well as possible campaign funding violations, and FBI agents are looking into whether he's inflated the value of his medallion business from taxi to get additional funding.
Trump, Donald Trump Jr. repeatedly said that the president did not know He reported that Cohen claimed that he was present, as well as several others, when Trump was informed of the offer of the Russians by Trump Jr. in the Trump Tower case 2016. Cohen told people that Trump had approved the meeting with the Russians.
Cohen's credibility was immediately challenged on Thursday night by the current president's attorney, Rudolph Giuliani. The former mayor of New York said in an interview last Thursday with The Post that Cohen "is not credible at all, and there are witnesses who know what he claims to not be true."
Giuliani refused to name the witnesses. When asked if Trump would be willing to talk about the Russian meeting with Special Adviser Robert Mueller, Giuliani said: "I still have doubts about the people around Mueller" and said that the President's team remained undecided "The President is ready to talk about any matter, but he would be wrong to submit it to that," said Giuliani, adding that the Russian meeting "did not" I'm came in our conversations "with Mueller and his team.
Giuliani said that if Cohen was seeking a pardon by threatening to testify on the June 2016 meeting," it's a stupid way to do it. "[19659002] "I do not want the President to consider a pardon, but you" do not get one by lying, "he said
Davis said earlier this week that Cohen was not asking for sorry. Davis declined to comment on CNN's report on Thursday night.
At the Trump Tower 2016 meeting, Trump Jr. was joined by his brother-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Trump's campaign president at the time, Paul Manafort. There were several indigenous Russians in the room, including Natalia Veselnitskaya, a lawyer with links to the Kremlin.
After the news of the meeting broke in July 2017, the Trump team initially offered a misleading explanation of the session. A first statement said that participants had mostly discussed the adoption of Russian orphans in the United States.
The official story changed later.
Testimony and documents revealed that the meeting came from an email sent by a musical publicist to Trump Jr. in which the Trump campaign was promised "some official documents and information" which constituted "very high level information and sensitive, but is part of Russia and his government's support for Mr. Trump. "
Trump Jr. replied: "[I] That's what you say I like him." He wanted to talk with the rich entrepreneur and Moscow entertainer, Emin Agalarov, the publicist's client , before finalizing the details.
But Trump Jr., the president and White House aides insisted that President Trump was not aware of it. In 1965, Trump Jr. testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that his father had no knowledge of the meeting. with the Russians.
"" My father knew nothing about the meeting or these events, "he said in a statement released on July 9, 2017.
Democrats were skeptical about his account Trump Jr. , on June 6, 2016, which, according to them, could show that Trump's son informed his father of the meeting in advance, at 16:04 that day, the phone records show that Agalarov called Trump Jr. 2 minutes
The phone records then sho w that Trump Jr. called Agalarov at 4:31 pm But between those two calls, the phone records show that Trump Jr. was connected with a phone number that was stuck in the
Trump Jr. told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he did not remember who he was talking to at the time, but others testified that his father, Donald Trump, uses a blocked line.
His lawyer Alan Futerfas issued a statement Thursday night saying that: "Donald Trump Jr. has been professional and responsible throughout the Mueller and Congressional investigations. We are very confident about the accuracy and reliability of the information provided by Mr. Trump, Jr. and on his behalf. "
Democrat lawmakers pointed out that two days before the meeting at Trump Tower, Trump announced" Trump Jr. says he did not have the slightest filth at the meeting – and the promised speech never happened
On Twitter on Friday morning, Trump also blasted the probe Mueller and suggested, without proof, that it was the Democrats and not his own campaign who agreed with Russia to interfere in the elections of 2016.
"The only collusion with Russia was with the Democrats, so now they are watching my Tweets (with 53 million other people) – hunting to witches faked continues! How stupid and unfair for our country, "he tweeted.
Rosalind S. Helderman and Carol D. Leonnig contributed to this article
Source link
