Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) (File Photo/screen capture/C-SPAN)

(CNSNews.com) - President Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen secretly taped some of his private conversations with Donald Trump, and last week, press reports said Cohen is now contradicting the president's denial that he knew in advance about Don Junior's meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower.



"I've never seen a lawyer behave this way my entire life, and I've been a lawyer most of my adult life," Graham told "Sunday Morning Futures" with Maria Bartiromo.

"When it comes to Michael Cohen, you should be suspicious of what he says. He's on the hot seat. He's looking at going to jail. So people like him are subject to making things up.





"And I can tell you this, I talked to (Senate intelligence committee Chairman) Richard Burr yesterday. Michael Cohen has already appeared before Congress talking about a lot of things. And this idea he told Trump about the Russian meeting before it happened is, to us, very much new news. So, Mr. Cohen, if you have something new to say you need to come to Congress and say it under oath."



Asked if Cohen will be recalled before the committee, Graham said, "I don't know, but I'm tired of having President Trump tried in the media. This is the oddest way to communicate with Mueller is to leak a story to NBC News that you got some new information about the Russian meeting regarding President Trump. I've been lawyer all my adult life, I've never seen that work. That's the media strategy.



"So I know what Cohen has said in the past about President Trump not knowing anything about the meeting. He's on record -- Cohen is -- and if he has something new to say, don't leak it to NBC News. You need to come to either the Judiciary Committee, the Intel Committee or both and be willing to say what you have to say under oath and to every American. If I were you, I would be very suspicious of Michael Cohen right now."



President Trump repeatedly has denied knowing about his son's meeting with several Russians who apparently promised the Trump campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton. (No dirt was delivered, according to transcripts released in May by the Senate Judiciary Committee.)



Just last Friday, Trump tweeted: "I did NOT know of the meeting with my son, Don jr. Sounds to me like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out of an unrelated jam (Taxi cabs maybe?). He (Cohen) even retained Bill and Crooked Hillary’s lawyer. Gee, I wonder if they helped him make the choice!"



Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani said on Sunday he doesn't know why anyone would believe Michael Cohen, who is under federal investigation in New York.



"I didn't know that he taped conversations surreptitiously. I didn't know he would grossly violate the attorney-client privilege. I didn't he would mislead dozens of reporters and tape them all over the place and pretend to them directly, I'm not recording you. I didn't know that," Giuliani said.



Host Margaret Brennan asked Giuliani how much of the evidence seized in the FBI raid on Cohen's properties relates to the president:



"Well, let me see if I can make it about as clear as possible," Giuliani responded. "We know of something like 183 unique conversations on tape. One of those was the president of the United States. That's the three-minute one involving -- involving the McDougal payment, the AMI-McDougal payment.



There are ... maybe 11 or 12 others out of the 183 in which the president is discussed at any length by Cohen, mostly with reporters, all clearly corroborating what the president has said in detail on many of those tweets -- in other words, that he didn't know about the payments to either one (McDougal or Stormy Daniels) when it happened, that he only found out later, that Cohen made them, not for the campaign.



Giuliani said Cohen "says very derogatory things about the campaign. He said, I only made it (the payments) because I personally love the president and Melania, and that's why I made the payments, which takes it right out of the campaign contribution arsenal."



Giuliani said the payment to McDougal, the apparent subject of Cohen's secret recording, "didn't happen."