A lawyer for President Trump’s former counsel Michael Cohen said Monday that neither President Trump nor his new lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, are capable of telling the truth, after Giuliani urged Cohen to be honest as his trial proceeds.
“Did @rudygiuliani really say on Sunday shows that @michaelcohen212 should cooperate with prosecutors and tell the truth? Seriously? Is that Trump and Giuliani definition of ‘truth’?” Lanny Davis wrote on Twitter.
“Trump/Giuliani next to the word ‘truth’ = oxymoron. Stay tuned,” he continued, adding the hashtag “thetruthmatters.”
Did @rudygiuliani really say on Sunday shows that @michaelcohen212 should cooperate with prosecutors and tell the truth? Seriously? Is that Trump and Giuliani definition of “truth”? Trump/Giuliani next to the word “truth” = oxymoron. Stay tuned. #thetruthmatters
— Lanny Davis (@LannyDavis) July 9, 2018
Giuliani, a member of Trump’s outside legal team, appeared on news programs on Sunday and Monday to answer questions about the investigation being conducted into Cohen by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York, and whether it has any legal ramifications for Trump.
“We want Michael to handle this in a way that’s most helpful to him,” Giuliani told ABC News on Sunday. “Michael’s not going to lie. He’s going to tell the truth. As long as he does that, we have nothing to fear.”
Cohen, in his first in-depth interview since the FBI raided his home, office, and hotel room as part of the probe, told ABC’s “Good Morning America” his first loyalty was to his family and the country. His comments were widely perceived as an indication he was prepared to provide federal prosecutors with information about his former presidential client, creating complications for Trump as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
Speculation that Cohen could present problems for Trump were also driven by his hiring of Davis, a Democrat who served as special counsel to former President Bill Clinton from 1996 to 1998. Davis joined Guy Petrillo as Cohen’s legal counsel.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York has not charged Cohen with a crime, but is reportedly looking into whether he committed bank or wire fraud. He is also examining whether he broke any campaign finance laws when he paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 days before the 2016 election in exchange for her silence concerning an alleged affair she had with Trump more than a decade ago.
