Trump maintains he does not know in advance about meeting with the Russians, challenging the Cohen claim



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President Trump issued a new rebuttal Friday 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. , made by Trump in the tweets of the morning, intensifies the public quarrel between the president and his long-time fixer. He follows a CNN report on Thursday night that Cohen said he was ready to testify that the current candidate, Trump, knew in advance of the Trump Tower meeting in 2016. [19659002"IdidnotknowthemeetingwithmysonDonJr"Trump said on Twitter Friday morning.

He castigated Cohen without naming him, saying, "It seems to me that someone is trying to make fuss to get himself out of an unrelated jam (can taxis?) He even retained the services of Bill and Crooked Hillary's lawyer.Gee, I wonder if they helped him make the choice! "

One of the lawyers of Cohen is Lanny Davis, a longtime friend and Clinton advisor.

Cohen is under federal investigation for bank fraud and possible campaign financing The Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and others have repeatedly said that the president knew nothing of the 2016 Trump Tower meeting until the end of the day. CNN reported that Cohen says he was present, as well as several others, when Trump was informed of the Russians' offer by Trump Jr. in 2016. Cohen told the people that Trump has approved go ahead with the meeting with the Russians.

Cohen's credibility was immediately challenged on Thursday night by the current president's attorney, Rudolph W. 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 meeting with Special Advisor Robert S. Mueller III, Giuliani said: "I still have doubts about the people around Mueller" and said that President's team remained indecisive "The President is ready to talk about any matter, but it would be a mistake to subject him to that," said Giuliani, adding that the meeting in Russia. "Giuliani said that if Cohen was aiming for a pardon by threatening to testify on the June 2016 meeting, "it's a stupid way to do it." 19659014] "I do not want the President to consider a pardon, but you do not have to." Do not get it by lying, "he said

Davis said earlier this week that Cohen is not asking for a pardon. 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 chairman 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 out 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 Trump Jr. in which the Trump campaign was promised "some official documents and information" that constituted "sensitive information of a very high standard but are part of Russia and the support of his government to Mr. Trump. "

Trump Jr. replied: "[I] That's what you say I like." He wanted to talk with the rich entrepreneur and Moscow artist Emin Agalarov, the publicist's client, before finalizing the details

But Trump Jr., the president and White House aides insisted that President Trump had not had any knowledge of the meeting in advance, he did not say anything about it. had not been informed at that time, and he had heard about it a year later when the New York Times reported it

Trump, Jr. testified last year to the Judiciary Committee of the Senate 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.

The Democrats were skeptical about his account, highlighting the phone calls made by Trump Jr. on June 6, 2016, which they said could show that Trump's son told his father about the meeting at # 39; advance. At 16:04 that day, the phone records show that Agalarov called Trump Jr .; the call lasted up to 2 minutes

The phone records then show 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 files.

Trump Jr. told the Judiciary Committee of the Senate that he did not remember who he was talking to at that time, but others testified that his father, Donald Trump, uses a line blocked.

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 of the accuracy and reliability of information provided by Mr. Trump, Jr. and on his behalf. "

Democrat legislators pointed out that two days before the meeting at Trump Tower, Trump announced plans to make a" big speech "about the Clinton scandals. Trump Jr. says that he did not have any filth at the meeting – and the promised speech never happened.

On Twitter on Friday morning, Trump also blasted the Mueller probe and suggested, without proof, that it was actually Democrat. and not his own campaign that had stuck with Russia to interfere in the elections of 2016.

"The only collusion with Russia was with the Democrats, so now they're watching my Tweets (with 53 million of them). 39; other people) – fakes The witch hunt continues! As it is stupid and unfair to our country, "he tweeted .

Rosalind S. Helderman and Carol D. Leonnig contributed to this article.

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