President says Michael Cohen told the truth by saying he had no evidence that Trump colluded with Russia

Donald Trump claimed on Thursday that Michael Cohen lied about almost everything during his explosive congressional testimony the day before – but told the truth by saying he had no evidence that Trump colluded with Russia.

Speaking in Vietnam after meeting the North Korean leader, Kim Jong un, Trump said Cohen, his former legal fixer, lied “95% instead of 100%” of the time during a hearing of the House oversight committee on Wednesday. “I was impressed,” said Trump.



Trump falsely claimed several times that Cohen had testified that there had been “no collusion”. In fact, Cohen said he did not know any “direct evidence” of collusion. “But I have my suspicions,” he told members of Congress.

Trump said of Cohen: “He lied a lot, but it was very interesting, because he didn’t lie about one thing. He said no collusion with the Russian hoax. And I said, ‘I wonder why he didn’t just lie about that too, like he lied about everything else.’”

Cohen delivered a scathing account of his 10 years as Trump’s enforcer, calling the president a racist conman, implicating him in a series of felonies and estimating that Cohen had threatened 500 people on Trump’s behalf.



He said Trump’s eldest son, Donald Jr, had been involved in a criminal conspiracy to pay hush money to a pornographic actor, Stormy Daniels, who alleged she had an affair with the elder Trump. Federal prosecutors in New York continue to investigate.

Sign up for the US morning briefing

Cohen confirmed that Trump was under federal investigation for undisclosed crimes and warned that Trump may try to cling to power even if his re-election campaign fails next year.



He also alleged that Trump knew in advance of plans by WikiLeaks to publish Democratic party emails, which US authorities say were stolen by Russian intelligence operatives, and that Donald Jr was to meet with Russians at Trump Tower.

But, Cohen said, he knew of no direct evidence that Trump or his campaign colluded with Russia’s interference in the 2016 election campaign. US intelligence agencies concluded that the Russian operation was aimed at boosting Trump’s chances.

Robert Mueller, the special counsel, is concluding a two-year investigation into any links or coordination between Russia and Trump’s campaign. He has said Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, shared polling data with an alleged Russian intelligence operative.

Cohen said during his testimony that he saw “something odd” about an affectionate back-and-forth Trump had with Vladimir Putin in public remarks over the years. “There are just so many dots that seem to lead in the same direction,” he said.

He reiterated that Trump had lied repeatedly to the public during the 2016 election campaign by saying he had no business dealings with Russia. In fact, Cohen has told prosecutors, Trump was keenly pursuing a lucrative tower in Moscow until June 2016.

Cohen has previously testified that he spoke with an aide to Dmitry Peskov, one of Putin’s most senior advisers, about securing approval for the tower project.

Trump on Thursday repeated his assertion that Mueller’s inquiry is a “witch-hunt” that was damaging to the country. He complained it was a “terrible thing” that Democrats had chosen to hold their hearing while he was at a summit overseas.

“They could have made it two days later or next week and it would have been even better,” said Trump.

Mueller is expected to pass a report on his findings to the attorney general, William Barr, next month. Barr is then obliged to notify senior members of Congress. But it remains unclear how much of Mueller’s report will be made public.