Cohen intends to comply with the interview demand related to the Russia investigation, his lawyer says

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A Senate committee has subpoenaed Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, his attorney said on Thursday, and Cohen intends to comply with the interview demand, which is related to the Russia investigation.

“This morning the Senate intelligence committee served Michael Cohen with a subpoena,” Lanny Davis, a lawyer for Cohen, said in a statement.

The subpoena comes one day after Cohen asked to postpone an appearance before the House oversight committee, which had been scheduled for next week. Cohen cited “ongoing threats against his family” from the president and his attorney Rudy Giuliani.

Davis disclosed the subpoena from the Senate intelligence committee in a one-sentence statement, and later told the Associated Press in a text message that “we will comply and hope to agree upon reasonable terms, ground rules and a date”.

Cohen pleaded guilty last month to lying to Congress about how long into Trump’s campaign for the presidency he and his adviser pursued a deal to develop a tower in Russia’s capital, and for his involvement in payments to a former Playboy model and porn star.

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Cohen is set to begin a three-year prison sentence in March.

Cohen earlier delayed his 7 February appearance before the House committee on oversight and reform on the advice of his legal team, citing ongoing cooperation in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation and threats against his family.

Trump, along with his attorney, Giuliani, have publicly urged the justice department to investigate Cohen’s father-in-law, insinuating the Cohen relative was part of some unspecified criminal activity.

“If he wants to criticize Cohen, he can,” Davis said in an interview on Thursday. “Obviously, picking on his family publicly is a way of silencing him or intimidating him. And certainly he has engendered great fear in his extended family, which is why we postponed it.”

That decision pushed back the chance of a public airing on details of Cohen’s relationship with Trump, including hush money payments that Cohen has admitted arranging to two women who say they had sex with the president. Trump has denied the allegation.

Democrats have suggested they may subpoena Cohen to compel his testimony and the committee’s chairman, Representative Elijah Cummings, said Cohen could be brought from prison to appear before Congress.

“We will get his testimony,” Cummings said.

The Senate committee did not immediately confirm the subpoena. It ordinarily holds its Russia-related hearings in private. It was not immediately clear when the committee wanted to meet with Cohen.