President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., December 11, 2018. (Jonathan Ernst/REUTERS)

Representative Joaquin Castro (D., Texas), who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, said Friday that Trump should resign or be impeached if he did in fact direct his personal attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress, as was alleged in a Thursday night Buzzfeed News report.

If the @BuzzFeed story is true, President Trump must resign or be impeached. — Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) January 18, 2019

Cohen pleaded guilty in November to lying to Congress about exactly when discussions pertaining to the construction of a Trump Tower in Moscow concluded. After initially testifying that discussions ended in January 2016, Cohen later admitted that he continued planning the development with senior Russian officials into June 2016.


The report, which cites two law enforcement officials familiar with the matter, claims that Trump told Cohen to lie to Congress about the timeline in order to conceal his own involvement. Trump was aware at the time that Cohen was in contact with Russian officials, and he even endorsed Cohen’s suggestion that he travel to Russia to meet personally with Vladimir Putin in July 2016, telling Cohen “make it happen.”

Trump’s children were also reportedly directly involved in the plans and received regular updates on the status of negotiations from Cohen.


Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer, dismissed the report on Friday, calling Cohen’s credibility into question.

Just in, Rudy Giuliani’s response to Buzzfeed story: “If you believe Cohen I can get you a great deal on the Brooklyn Bridge.” — Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) January 18, 2019

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