The special counsel investigation “established multiple links between Trump Campaign officials and individuals tied to the Russian government.” But it “did not establish that the Campaign coordinated or conspired with the Russian government in its election-interference activities.”
Our latest collaboration with CNN’s Jake Tapper is on Michael Cohen’s congressional testimony and instances where he contradicted past statements made by President Donald Trump.
Here we lay out the conflicting accounts of what Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney, told the House Committee on Oversight and Reform at the Feb. 27 hearing, and what the president has said in the past.
President Trump went on the attack against Michael Cohen, saying his former personal attorney is a “weak person” trying to avoid jail time by “lying” about negotiations with Russian officials about a possible Trump Tower development in Moscow. But the president twisted several facts in service of his points.
For many months, President Donald Trump, his White House staff and his personal attorneys, Michael Cohen and Rudy Giuliani, repeatedly made false, misleading and contradictory statements about illegal payments that were made during the 2016 campaign to silence two women who claimed to have extramarital affairs with Trump.
President Trump has acknowledged he reimbursed his personal attorney for the $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. But many questions remain about the payment and whether it may have run afoul of campaign finance or ethics laws.
Q: Is Robert S. Khuzami, the deputy U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, an “Obama holdover”?
A: No. Khuzami served under Democratic and Republican administrations, but he left government in 2013. He returned to public service this year when he was hired by the Trump administration.
Q: Did a federal judge rule that evidence collected from Michael Cohen’s office is inadmissible?
A: No. That claim was invented by a website that labels its content as satire.