Donald Trump criticized former President Obama for not releasing his school records, even as his friends worked to hide his own, according to the Washington Post

President Donald Trump has long boasted about his academic prowess, telling the Washington Post in 2016 that, during his time at a New York military school as a teenager, “I became one of the top guys.”

But as with many other Trump claims, his stories of excelling as a student are difficult or impossible to verify.

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In fact, according to a new Post report, his transcripts from the New York Military Academy were hidden by school officials in 2011 under pressure from “friends” of Trump, then a real estate mogul and reality TV personality.

This account — confirmed to the Post by both the headmaster and superintendent at the time as well a former student — does not identify which “prominent, wealthy alumni” wanted to make sure Trump’s school records stayed private.

However, the Post‘s reporting corroborates statements made by Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen during his testimony to Congress last week in which he called his former boss a “racist,” “con man,” and a “cheat.”

“When I say con man, I’m talking about a man who declares himself brilliant but directed me to threaten his high school, his colleges, and the College Board to never release his grades or SAT scores,” Cohen said. “The irony wasn’t lost on me at the time that Mr. Trump in 2011 had strongly criticized President Obama for not releasing his grades.”

(Trump has dismissed Cohen as a “convicted liar” and “fraudster”.)

The effort to hide Trump’s NYMA transcript came shortly after he called then-President Barack Obama a “terrible student” and demanded that he “show his records” in 2011, according to the Post.

Evan Jones, who served as the NYMA headmaster at the time, told the Post that the superintendent, Jeffrey Coverdale, “came to me in a panic because he had been accosted by prominent, wealthy alumni of the school who were Mr. Trump’s friends.”

They wanted to keep the records out of the public eye, Jones told the paper.

“[Coverdale] said, ‘You need to go grab that record and deliver it, to me because I need to deliver it to them,’ ” Jones recalled.

Coverdale told the paper that he didn’t hand over the records, even though the private school’s board of trustees requested him to.

Instead, he said, “I moved them elsewhere on campus where they could not be released. It’s the only time I ever moved an alumnus’s records.”

Image zoom Former President Barack Obama Thomas Imo/Photothek/Getty

At the time, the school was struggling financially, so the administrators were in a precarious situation. Coverdale refused to tell the Post who wanted him to hand over the files.

“I don’t want to get into anything with these guys,” he said. “You have to understand, these were millionaires and multimillionaires on the board, and the school was going through some troubles. But to hear, ‘You will deliver them to us?’ That doesn’t happen. This was highly unusual.”

The New York Military Academy, which President Trump attended for five years, did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

The White House also did not respond to a request for comment.

Image zoom Michael Cohen MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty

The New York Times put together a collection of documents that track Trump’s transactions with Cohen, one of which is a letter Cohen sent to Trump’s alma mater Fordham University.

Dated May 5, 2015, Cohen said he was prohibiting the institution from releasing Trump’s records, which can’t be released without the former student’s consent under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

Cohen wrote to the university’s president, Rev. Joseph McShane, that if the records were released without Trump’s written consent then “we will hold your institution liable to the fullest extent of the law including damages and criminality,” per the Times.

Cohen wanted confirmation that the records were “permanently sealed.”

Bob Howe, a spokesperson from Fordham, confirmed in a statement that a Trump campaign staffer called the university, according to TIME. He also confirmed that a letter was sent to the university on his behalf.

“We told the caller that Fordham is bound by federal law, and that we could not/would not reveal/share any records (as we would not reveal any student records) with anyone except Mr. Trump himself, or any recipient he designated, in writing,” Howe said. “Our stance remains the same: we obey federal law and don’t release student records to anyone but the student/graduate or anyone that the student designates, in writing.”

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After two years at Fordham University, Trump transferred to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree, according to TIME. The Daily Pennsylvanian published a list of students who made the 1968 Wharton Dean’s List — and Trump wasn’t among them.

Obama graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and also was elected as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review.

In January 2018, Trump boasted of his intelligence —as he is wont to do — after his mental fitness for office was questioned.

“Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart,” he tweeted at the time, according to The Hill. He also described himself as “a very stable genius.”

And in October 2017, Trump defended his smarts again.