Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen on Wednesday refused to say President Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election, under pressure from a House Democrat who pressed him on whether collusion was possible.
“Knowing how Mr. Trump operates, with his ‘winning-at-all-costs’ mentality, do you believe that he would cooperate or collude with a foreign power to win the presidency,” asked Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla. “Is he capable of that?”
“It calls on so much speculation … it would be unfair for me to try to answer that,” Cohen said.
When pressed again on whether the potential was there for Trump to collude, Cohen answered briefly, “yes,” and said Trump will do “whatever is necessary to win,” but he then backtracked on the specific idea of collusion.
“I wouldn’t use the word colluding. Was there something odd about a back-and-forth praise with President Putin, yes. But I’m not really sure that I can answer that question in terms of collusion.”
Cohen also said in his written testimony that he had no evidence that Trump worked with Russia to win the 2016 election.
