Hanoi: President Donald Trump sought to discredit his former lawyer Michael Cohen after the ex-aide’s bombshell congressional testimony in which he essentially called Trump a criminal.
“He (Cohen) lied a lot,” Trump told a press conference Thursday in Vietnam after his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Trump insisted that Cohen’s testimony Wednesday had provided no evidence of collusion by the Trump campaign with Russia in the 2016 US elections.
Cohen told the lawmakers he had no direct knowledge of collusion but that he had suspicions.
The US President complained that the testimony took place during the summit with Kim. “I think having a fake hearing like that and having it in the middle of this very important summit is really a terrible thing,” Trump pointed out. He again insisted the probe into Russian collusion is a ‘hoax’ and a ‘witchhunt’.
Earlier Cohen wrapped up hours of explosive congressional testimony Wednesday by warning that the US president may not accept a ‘peaceful transition of power’ if he loses re-election in 2020.
“Given my experience working for Mr Trump, I fear that if he loses the election in 2020, that there will never be a peaceful transition of power,” Cohen said in a final statement to the House Oversight and Reform Committee after hours of public testimony.
AFP