WASHINGTON — President Trump’s current lawyer on Sunday downplayed the possibility that the commander-in-chief coached his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen about his testimony before Congress.
“So what if he talked to him about it?” a dismissive Rudy Giuliani told host Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Giuliani also said he’s “100 percent certain” that Trump did not direct Cohen to lie to lawmakers in a separate interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Cohen pleaded guilty in November to lying to Congress about Trump’s real estate dealings with Moscow during the presidential campaign. Cohen told lawmakers the effort to build a Trump skyscraper in Russia ended in January 2016, when in reality the business talks continued deep into the campaign.
Giuliani even conceded Sunday that Trump and Cohen’s discussions about making a deal with Russia continued well into October and November 2016, when Trump was elected president.
Cohen said in court that he lied about the Moscow dealings on behalf of Trump to align his testimony with his boss’ repeated denials of any business ties with Russia.
BuzzFeed reported that Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress, and that special counsel Robert Mueller was aware. Mueller’s office offered a rare response late Friday, saying the article was not accurate, but didn’t offer specifics.
BuzzFeed has stood by its reporting and pointed to Giuliani’s responses Sunday as “extraordinary” admissions.
“Rudy made real news around the core of this story,” BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith told CNN’s “Reliable Sources” Sunday.
BuzzFeed reporter Anthony Cormier said he’s gotten “further confirmation” that his article was right.
“We’re being told to stand our ground,” Cormier said. “Our reporting is going to be borne out to be accurate and we’re 100 percent behind it.”
The reporting revived talks among Democrats of potential impeachment of Trump.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said Democrats will “absolutely” still investigate the possibility that Trump ordered Cohen to lie.
“Absolutely, absolutely,” Schiff (D-Calif.) told CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “Congress has a fundamental interest in two things. First in getting to the bottom of why a witness came before us and lied and who else was knowledgeable that this was a lie.”
But Trump and his allies have pounced on the media as a result of Mueller’s rare rebuke of the BuzzFeed story.
“It was almost as if some of the reporting was not reporting, it was wishful thinking,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told “Face the Nation.” “And I think it hurt the First Amendment.”
