While President Trump is in Vietnam for a high-stakes summit with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, Michael Cohen knocked Trump for his medical deferment during the Vietnam War.
Cohen said that his role as Trump’s “fixer” meant he was tasked with handling press inquiries into Trump’s lack of service during the Vietnam War. Trump received one deferment for bone spurs and four student deferments.
“Mr. Trump claimed that it was because of a bone spur, but when I asked for medical records he gave me none and said that there was no surgery. He told me not to answer the specific questions by reporters, but rather offer simply that he received a medical deferment.”
[Watch: Michael Cohen testifies before House Oversight Committee]
Cohen said he “never heard Mr. Trump say anything in private that led me to believe he loved our nation” and reminded the congressional panel of Trump’s comments “that he did not believe that Vietnam veteran and prisoner of war Senator John McCain to be a hero, because he likes people who were not captured.”
Cohen said that his conversation with Trump about Vietnam finished with Trump saying, “‘You think I’m stupid? I’m not going to Vietnam!” Cohen said that he found it ironic that President Trump was now in Vietnam. Despite this, Cohen said, “I continued to work for him.”
Trump attacked Senator Richard Blumenthal for misrepresenting his own Vietnam service in a tweet earlier Wednesday.
He also went after Cohen, saying, “Michael Cohen was one of many lawyers who represented me (unfortunately). He had other clients also. He was just disbarred by the State Supreme Court for lying & fraud. He did bad things unrelated to Trump. He is lying in order to reduce his prison time. Using Crooked’s lawyer!”
