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family members had committed crimes. In an interview on Fox on January 12, 2019, the President was asked whether he was worried about Cohen's testimony and responded:
[I]n order to get his sentence reduced, [Cohen] says "I have an idea, I'll ah, tell—I'Il give you some information on the president." Well, there is no information. But he should give information maybe on his father-in-law because that's the one that people want to look at because where does that money—that's the money in the family. And I guess he didn't want to talk about his father-in-law, he's trying to get his sentence reduced. So it's ah, pretty sad. You know, it's weak and it's very sad to watch a thing like that.'[1]
On January 18, 2019, the President tweeted, "Kevin Corke, @FoxNews 'Don't forget, Michael Cohen has already been convicted of perjury and fraud, and as recently as this week, the Wall Street Journal has suggested that he may have stolen tens of thousands of dollars. . . .' Lying to reduce his jail time! Watch father-in-law!"[2]
On January 23, 2019, Cohen postponed his congressional testimony, citing threats against his family.[3] The next day, the President tweeted, "So interesting that bad lawyer Michael Cohen, who sadly will not be testifying before Congress, is using the lawyer of Crooked Hillary Clinton to represent him—Gee, how did that happen?"[4]
Also in January 2019, Giuliani gave press interviews that appeared to confirm Cohen's account that the Trump Organization pursued the Trump Tower Moscow project well past January 2016. Giuliani stated that "it's our understanding that [discussions about the Trump Moscow project] went on throughout 2016. Weren't a lot of them, but there were conversations. Can't be sure of the exact date. But the president can remember having conversations with him about it. . . . The president also remembers—yeah, probably up—could be up to as far as October, November."[5] In an interview with the New York Times, Giuliani quoted the President as saying that the discussions regarding the Trump Moscow project were "going on from the day I announced to the day I won."[6] On January 21, 2019, Giuliani issued a statement that said: "My recent statements about discussions during the 2016 campaign between Michael Cohen and candidate Donald Trump about a potential Trump Moscow 'project' were hypothetical and not based on conversations I had with the president."[7]
- ↑ Jeanine Pirro Interview with President Trump, Fox News (Jan. 12, 2019) (emphasis added).
- ↑ @realDonaldTrump 1/18/19 (10:02 a.m. ET) Tweet (emphasis added).
- ↑ Statement by Lanny Davis, Cohen's personal counsel (Jan, 23, 2019).
- ↑ @realDonaldTrump 1/24/19 (7:48 a.m. ET) Tweet.
- ↑ Meet the Press Interview with Rudy Giuliani, NBC (Jan. 20, 2019).
- ↑ Mark Mazzetti et al., Moscow Skyscraper Talks Continued Through "the Day I Won," Trump Is Said to Acknowledge, New York Times (Jan. 20, 2019).
- ↑ Maggie Haberman, Giuliani Says His Moscow Trump Tower Comments Were "Hypothetical", New York Times (Jan. 21, 2019). In a letter to this Office, the President's counsel stated that Giuliani's public comments "were not intended to suggest nor did they reflect knowledge of the existence or timing
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