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Home / World

Cohen lawyer backs off claims about what info his client has

By Tom Hamburger, Rosalind Helderman
Washington Post·
26 Aug, 2018 11:23 PM5 mins to read

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US President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen is in negotiations with federal prosecutors to possibly plead guilty in the investigation into his business dealings, according to a person familiar with the matter.

A lawyer for Michael Cohen, US President Donald Trump's former lawyer, is backing away from confident assertions he made that Cohen has information to share with investigators that shows Trump knew in 2016 of Russian efforts to undermine Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Lanny Davis, a spokesman and lawyer for Cohen, said that he is no longer certain about claims he made to reporters on background and on the record in recent weeks about what Cohen knows about Trump's awareness of the Russian efforts.

Davis did not rule out that his claims were correct but expressed regret that he did not explain that he could not independently corroborate them, saying that he now believes he "should have been more clear."

Neither Cohen nor his lead defence lawyer, Guy Petrillo, responded to requests for comment.

The prospect that Cohen could be a potential witness against the President in the Special Counsel's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election has dominated the news, particularly since Cohen pleaded guilty last week to tax evasion, bank fraud and campaign finance crimes.

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Davis' latest comments cast doubt on what Cohen may know, including about a June 2016 meeting in New York's Trump Tower attended by Trump's eldest son and a Russian lawyer.

Trump and his allies seized on the erosion of those claims.

"Michael Cohen's attorney clarified the record, saying his client does not know if President Trump knew about the Trump Tower meeting (out of which came nothing!)," Trump tweeted. "The answer is that I did NOT know about the meeting. Just another phony story by the Fake News Media!"

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Davis told the Washington Post that he cannot confirm media reports that Cohen is prepared to tell Special Counsel Robert Mueller that Trump had advance knowledge of the 2016 Trump Tower meeting, where Donald Trump jnr expected to receive damaging information about Clinton from a Russian lawyer.

CNN reported last month that Cohen was claiming to have witnessed Trump being informed of the Russians' offer by Trump jnr and that the then-candidate approved the meeting.

The following day, the Washington Post reported that Cohen had told associates that he witnessed an exchange in which Trump jnr told his father about an upcoming gathering in which he expected to get information about Clinton. The Post did not report that Trump jnr told his father that the information was coming from Russians.

It takes a special counsel to actually catch white-collar criminals.

The crimes of Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen are notable not just for how blatant they were but also for their lack of sophistication.

By @eisingerj: https://t.co/IE77bNhrJT

— ProPublica (@propublica) August 26, 2018


The information in the Post story, which was attributed to one person familiar with discussions among Cohen's friends, came from Davis, who is now acknowledging his role on the record.

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Davis said he should not have expressed such confidence in his information.

"I should have been more clear - including with you - that I could not independently confirm what happened," Davis said, adding: "I regret my error."

In the past week, when asked directly by CNN's Anderson Cooper whether there was information that Trump knew about his son's meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya beforehand, Davis said, "No, there's not."

In a statement, a CNN spokeswoman said, "We stand by our story, and are confident in our reporting of it."

People familiar with Cohen's testimony to the House and Senate Intelligence committees said Cohen was interviewed extensively about the Russian interference campaign but did not provide any information to suggest Trump had advance knowledge.

Senators Richard Burr, (R), and Mark Warner, (D), leaders of the Senate committee, said in recent days that Cohen had sent word to the committee that he had no desire to amend that testimony.

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Lanny Davis, attorney for Michael Cohen, told @maddow this week that his client has information that should be of interest to the special counsel and is "more than happy to tell the special counsel all that he knows." https://t.co/fFvWHT6vz4

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) August 26, 2018


In his interview with the Post, Davis also hedged on an idea he widely promoted after Cohen's guilty plea: that the longtime Trump loyalist had information that Trump knew of the Russian hacking of Democratic emails ahead of time.

Davis floated that idea in numerous broadcast interviews in recent days, repeatedly touting his client's potential value to Mueller.

"I believe that Mr Cohen has direct knowledge that would be of interest to Mr Mueller that suggests - I'm not sure it proves - that Mr Trump was aware of Russian government agents hacking illegally, committing computer crimes, to the detriment of the candidate who he was running against, Hillary Clinton," Davis told PBS last week.

But asked at the weekend how confident he was that Trump knew about the hacking before it became public, Davis said: "I am not sure. There's a possibility that is the case. But I am not sure."

Davis said that in discussing the hacking allegations last week, he should have emphasised his lack of certainty. He said he raised the idea that Cohen might have information about Trump's knowledge because he had a strong feeling that might be the case.

"I was giving an instinct that he might have something to say of interest to the special counsel" about hacking, Davis said. In retrospect, he said, "I am just not sure."

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On #CNNSOTU @RepAdamSchiff says that the Cohen payment may have determined the electionhttps://t.co/xCLHUw6VRy

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) August 26, 2018
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