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The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Friday, November 30, 2018 3A
Cohen admits to lying about Russia deal
Michael Cohen walks out of federal court, Thursday, Nov.
29, in New York. Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former
lawyer, pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about work he
did on an aborted project to build a Trump Tower in Russia.
BY ERIC TUCKER,
LARRY NEUMEISTER
AND CHAD DAY
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Presi
dent Donald Trump’s for
mer lawyer, Michael Cohen,
admitted Thursday he lied
to Congress about a Mos
cow real estate deal he had
pursued on Trump’s behalf
during the heat of the 2016
Republican campaign. He
said he did so to be consis
tent with Trump’s “political
messaging.”
Cohen’s guilty plea makes
clear that prosecutors
believe that Trump, who
insisted repeatedly through
out the campaign that he had
no business dealings in Rus
sia, was continuing to pursue
the project weeks after he
had clinched the Republi
can nomination for presi
dent and well after he and
his associates have publicly
acknowledged.
The negotiations about
building a Russian Trump
Tower continued as late as
June 2016 — the same month
Trump’s oldest son met in
Manhattan with a Kremlin-
connected lawyer — even
though Cohen told two con
gressional committees last
year that the talks ended that
January.
Cohen also discussed the
proposal with Trump on
multiple occasions and with
unidentified members of the
president’s family, according
to court papers filed by spe
cial counsel Robert Mueller,
who is investigating Russian
interference in the presi
dential election and possible
coordination with the Trump
campaign. Cohen is cooperat
ing with Mueller and has met
with his team seven times,
prosecutors say.
The Cohen case was filed
in New York a week after
Trump and his lawyers pro
vided Mueller with responses
to written questions and is
the first new charge filed
by the special counsel since
the appointment of Matthew
Whitaker, who has spoken
pejoratively about the inves
tigation, as acting attorney
general with oversight of the
probe. Whitaker was advised
of the plea ahead of time,
according to a person famil
iar with the investigation.
Cohen’s surprise court
appearance marks the lat
est step in his evolution from
trusted Trump consigliere —
he said Thursday he had lied
out of “loyalty” — to prime
antagonist. It is the second
time the lawyer’s legal woes
have entangled Trump, com
ing months after Cohen said
the president directed him
during his campaign to make
hush money payments to two
women who said they had sex
with Trump.
Trump on Thursday called
Cohen a “weak person” who
was lying to get a lighter sen
tence and repeatedly stressed
that the real estate deal at
issue was never a secret and
JULIE JACOBSON I Associated Press
never executed. His law
yer, Rudy Giuliani, said that
Cohen was a “proven liar”
and that Trump’s business
organization had voluntarily
given Mueller the same docu
ments cited in the guilty plea
“because there was nothing
to hide.”
“We had a position to possi
bly do a deal to build a build
ing of some kind in Moscow. I
decided not to do it,” Trump
said.
He said the primary rea
son he didn’t pursue it was
“I was focused on running
for president.” He added:
“There would be nothing
wrong if I did do it. I was run
ning my business while I was
campaigning.”
But during the campaign,
Trump was repeatedly dis
missive of claims that he had
connections to the Kremlin,
an issue that flared as espe
cially sensitive in the summer
of 2016 after a cybersecurity
company asserted that Mos
cow was behind a cyberat
tack on the Democratic
National Committee.
“I have a great company.
I built an unbelievable com
pany, but if you look there
you’ll see there’s nothing in
Russia, ” Trump said at a July
2016 news conference.
“But zero, I mean I will tell
you right now, zero, I have
nothing to do with Russia,”
he said at another point.
It was not immediately
clear whether questions
about the Russian Trump
Tower real estate deal were
among those answered by
Trump and his lawyers last
week. But a prior list of que
ries that Mueller’s team pre
sented to Trump lawyers this
year did include a question
about it, and Mueller’s team
is known to have asked about
Trump’s business dealings
over the years.
If he did answer questions
on the topic, Trump could
have problems the responses
deviate from prosecutors’
factual narrative.
The nine-page charging
document for Cohen traces
the behind-the-scenes com
munication about the proj
ect that almost became
reality in October 2015 when
an obscure Russian real
estate developer signed a
letter of intent sent by Cohen
for a 15-floor hotel, condo
minium and retail complex
in Moscow.
Cohen’s comments made
clear that his communica
tions with Trump about the
project were more frequent
than he had suggested.
Cohen admitted lying
about the timing of the nego
tiations, his communications
with people in Trump’s com
pany and in Russia about the
deal, and other details to be
loyal to Trump and consis
tent with Trump’s “political
messaging.” Cohen and pros
ecutors referred to Trump as
“Individual One” throughout
Thursday’s proceedings and
said Cohen lied “to be loyal to
Individual One.”
Trump cancels scheduled Putin meeting at G-20 summit
BY ZEKE MILLER AND
CATHERINE LUCEY
Associated Press
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina —
President Donald Trump abruptly
canceled a planned meeting with
Russian President Vladimir Putin
as he headed to the Group of 20
Nations summit Thursday, cit
ing Russia’s seizure of Ukrainian
vessels as a source of tension in a
relationship he has fostered in the
face of criticism.
Trump tweeted his decision
from Air Force One shortly after
his former lawyer, Michael
Cohen, revealed he had lied to
Congress to cover up that he was
negotiating a real estate deal in
Moscow on Trump’s behalf during
the Republican presidential pri
mary in 2016.
The news ensured any meet
ing with Putin would spotlight the
special counsel’s investi
gation into whether the
Trump campaign col
luded with Moscow during
the campaign. Trump has
denied any wrongdoing
and on Thursday called
Cohen a “weak person”
looking for a reduced
sentence.
The last-minute move
kicked off a global economic
meeting expected to be domi
nated by Trump’s seat-of-his-pants
diplomacy. The Putin meeting —
a continuation of a controversial
summit between the two in July
— was just one of a series of high-
stakes items on Trump’s agenda,
which also includes talks with Chi
nese President Xi Jinping on how
to ease a rising trade war.
Although Trump had previously
floated canceling the meeting
with Putin, White House spokes
woman Sarah
Huckabee Sand
ers told reporters
he did not make
the final decision
until boarding the
plane for Argen
tina and speak
ing with national
security adviser
John Bolton and
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
The Kremlin said it had not been
formally notified of the decision,
which came hours after Moscow
said the meeting was on track.
“I look forward to a meaningful
Summit again as soon as this situ
ation is resolved!” Trump tweeted
from Air Force One.
Ukrainian President Petro
Poroshenko praised Trump on
Twitter, saying, “This is how great
leaders act!”
Sanders also said two of
Trump’s planned bilat
eral meetings — with
Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan and
South Korea’s Moon Jae-
in — had been canceled.
Trump will instead speak
informally with those
leaders at the confer
ence. She did not offer
any explanation for those
changes to the schedule.
The stakes for the sit-down
between Putin and Trump were
raised this week by Russia’s
stepped-up aggression in the
Kerch Strait, stemming from its
years long occupation of East
ern Ukraine. Russia recently
seized three Ukrainian vessels
and crews. Russia said Ukraine
didn’t have permission to pass
between Russia’s mainland and
the Crimean Peninsula. Ukraine
insisted its vessels abided by
maritime laws.
Tensions had already been high
over the war in Syria and allega
tions of Russian meddling in the
2016 presidential race. Trump has
sought to improve the relation
ship with Putin, but was roundly
criticized after the July summit
in Helsinki for failing to publicly
denounce Russia’s interference
and appearing to accept Putin’s
denials of such activity.
While Trump’s statement was
strongly worded, he has made
similarly dramatic moves before
only to walk them back. In the
spring he canceled a planned sum
mit with North Korea’s Kim Jong
Un, only to revive the meeting a
week later.
The G-20 meeting in Buenos
Aires comes amid growing eco
nomic uncertainty and global
displeasure with Trump’s trade
policy.
Trump
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