Open this photo in gallery Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, is sworn in to testify on Capitol Hill in Washington on Feb. 27, 2019. J. Scott Applewhite/The Associated Press

When he was Donald Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen once said he would “take a bullet” for the President. On Wednesday, Mr. Cohen turned around and unloaded on his former client with both barrels.

In more than five hours of congressional testimony, he accused Mr. Trump of lying about his company’s ties to Russia; orchestrating an illegal payoff to a porn star; making racist comments; inflating his income; and running for president purely as a marketing opportunity.

“I am ashamed because I know what Mr. Trump is,” Mr. Cohen told legislators. “He is a racist. He is a con man. He is a cheat.”

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The President’s former fixer, who spent a decade at his side, turned on him last year. Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about a plan to build a Trump hotel in Moscow during the campaign, and breaking campaign-finance law by paying off two women who said they’d had extramarital affairs with Mr. Trump. He will begin a three-year prison sentence this spring.

Mr. Cohen’s revelations largely broke down into two categories: Substantive accusations about Mr. Trump’s role in Russia-related matters and campaign-finance crimes, and more character-related anecdotes that paint his former boss as a vain bigot.

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1. Donald Trump got a heads-up that WikiLeaks was about to release hacked Democratic e-mails, probably knew about a notorious meeting to get Russian “dirt” on Hillary Clinton and was directly involved in plans to build a hotel in Moscow.

Mr. Cohen outlined three possible connections between Mr. Trump, Russia and a Kremlin-directed effort to tip the presidential election. None of these prove collusion on the part of Mr. Trump. But they tie him more closely to some of the central episodes special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating as part of his probe into Russian election hacking.

For one, Mr. Cohen said, Republican operative Roger Stone told Mr. Trump that WikiLeaks was about to dump stolen Democratic e-mails a few days ahead of their publication in July, 2016. When Mr. Stone, who said he had spoken directly with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, told Mr. Trump about the embarrassing missives, Mr. Trump replied: “Wouldn’t that be great.”

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Mr. Cohen also described a time when Mr. Trump’s son, Donald Jr., informed his father of a mysterious meeting that was coming up. That meeting, Mr. Cohen said, was likely the June, 2016, sit-down at Trump Tower, where Don Jr., campaign chair Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, met with a Russian lawyer who had promised them “dirt” that the Kremlin had unearthed on Ms. Clinton.

Mr. Trump also led efforts to build a Moscow hotel during the presidential campaign, even as he was publicly asserting that he had no business in Russia, Mr. Cohen said.

When he was still working for Mr. Trump in 2017, Mr. Cohen lied to Congress about the deal, claiming it ended before the first presidential primaries in January, 2016. In fact, Mr. Cohen said on Wednesday, the project continued all the way up to the election. Mr. Cohen said Mr. Trump didn’t directly tell him to lie, but strongly implied that he should. At a White House meeting in 2017, Mr. Cohen said, Mr. Trump told him “Michael: There’s no Russia.” Mr. Cohen said the statement in which he lied was also edited by another of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, Jay Sekulow, as well as Abbe Lowell, the lawyer for Ivanka Trump and Mr. Kushner.

2. Mr. Trump ordered Mr. Cohen to pay off a porn star ahead of the election, and then personally reimbursed him when he was President.

Days before the 2016 election, Mr. Cohen paid US$130,000 to adult film actor Stephanie Clifford in exchange for her silence about an alleged extramarital affair with Mr. Trump.

Mr. Cohen on Wednesday said Mr. Trump ordered the payoff and signed off on every detail. The President then wrote Mr. Cohen a series of personal cheques to reimburse him, he recounted.

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In one cinematic scene, Mr. Cohen recalled, Mr. Trump was touring him around the White House shortly after taking office, and stopped at one point to let him know that his reimbursement cheques were in the mail.

3. Mr. Trump said black people were not intelligent enough to vote for him, and concocted schemes to suppress his high-school grades and inflate his income.

Mr. Cohen recounted two episodes of Mr. Trump’s racism.

On one occasion when Barack Obama was president, Mr. Trump asked Mr. Cohen if he could name one country with a black leader that “wasn’t a shithole,” Mr. Cohen said.

On another, he recalled, the pair were driving through a down-at-the-heels Chicago neighbourhood when Mr. Trump commented that “only black people could live that way” and that “black people would never vote for him because they were too stupid.”

Mr. Cohen also outlined a series of tasks that he carried out for Mr. Trump over the years, including putting pressure on the President’s former high school and college not to release his grades, inflating the value of Mr. Trump’s properties to get him a better spot on Forbes magazine’s list of the richest people in the world and threatening approximately 500 people at different times on Mr. Trump’s behalf.

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4. The President has been involved in other “illegal acts” that haven’t yet become public.

For all the accusations Mr. Cohen levelled at Mr. Trump on Wednesday, he said there is even more alleged criminality he knows about – but can’t discuss.

Under questioning from committee Democrats, Mr. Cohen said he last spoke with Mr. Trump in the spring of last year, but he could not reveal the details because those discussions are under investigation by prosecutors in New York.

“Is there any other wrongdoing or illegal act that you are aware of regarding Donald Trump that we haven’t yet discussed today?” asked Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Illinois Democrat.

“Yes and, again, those are part of the investigation that’s currently being looked at” in New York, Mr. Cohen replied.

5. Mr. Cohen was ready to rumble with committee Republicans.

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GOP members of the committee, led by Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows, tried to shred Mr. Cohen’s credibility by repeatedly pointing out that he is an admitted liar.

Mr. Cohen fought back with a string of snarky one-liners.

On his source of income: “I don’t expect I’m going to have a source of income when I’m in a federal penitentiary.”

On whether he is planning any book or movie deals: “Tell me who you want to play you; I’ll write the name down.”

On the accusation that he is a “pathological liar”: “Sir, I’m sorry, are you referring to me or the President?”

At one point, Mr. Cohen admonished Republicans’ loyalty to the President, warning it will not end well.

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“For 10 years, I protected Mr. Trump,” he said. “I can only warn people, the more people that follow Mr. Trump, as I did, blindly, are going to suffer the same consequences that I’m suffering.”