Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump‘s former personal lawyer, revealed to lawmakers in his testimony Wednesday that Trump is the subject of a previously undisclosed criminal probe in New York.
Cohen made the revelation following a question from Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) concerning the last time Cohen spoke with Trump. The president’s former “fixer” said the most recent occasion during which the pair talked was “within two months” of federal investigators raiding Cohen’s home, office and hotel room last April.
“What did [Trump] or his agent communicate to you?” Krishnamoorthi asked Cohen.
“Unfortunately, this topic is actually something that’s being investigated right now by the Southern District of New York and I’ve been asked by them not to discuss and not to talk about these issues,” Cohen replied.
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Cohen himself appeared in court in New York’s Southern District twice last year to plead guilty, first to bank and tax fraud charges and campaign finance violations and then to lying to Congress about his involvement in a Trump Tower real estate deal in Moscow in 2016.
Cohen, who worked for Trump for more than ten years, has denied speculation he wanted to work in the White House. However, The Washington Post recently reported that the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York wrote that Cohen “expected to be given a prominent role and title in the new administration. When that did not materialize, Cohen found a way to monetize his relationship with the president.”
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) commented on Cohen’s testimony in an interview with ABC News on Wednesday.
“The words that he said today that would send a chill up my spine at the White House would be, ‘I’m in constant contact with the Southern District,'” former U.S. Attorney Christie told George Stephanopoulos.
Trump continues to face multiple investigations into his 2016 campaign, his 2017 inaugural committee and his family’s businesses, among other things. Special counsel Robert Mueller‘s inquiry into Russian meddling during the 2016 election and potential collusion between Trump associates and the Kremlin is set to conclude soon after roughly 21 months.
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