Lawyer Michael Cohen now claims his former client President Trump knew in advance that son Donald Trump Jr. and campaign officials were planning to meet with Russians in hopes of obtaining dirt on Hillary Clinton, despite Trump’s claims he knew nothing about the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in Manhattan, according to a report published late Thursday.
Cohen is reportedly also willing to make that statement to special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Trump’s team for possible collusion with Russia to win the election. People who spoke with Cohen said he shared this new information because it could help him strike a deal with the federal investigator, CNN reported.
Cohen said he was present when Trump was told about the Russians’ offer to meet with the campaign and that the billionaire himself approved the meeting before it took place.
[Emails: Lawyer who met Trump Jr. tied to Russian officials]
The meeting was first reported in July 2017 and the White House, as well as Trump Jr., denied that the then-candidate knew of the meeting a year earlier when it took place.
Days after the news broke last summer, Trump said of the meeting he had “only heard about it two or three days ago.”
Trump Jr. testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee last year that his father had not been aware of the Russian meeting at the campaign headquarters.
Sources told CNN that Cohen does not have proof, like a voice recording, that Trump was in a room when they were told about the potential meeting.
Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani told CNN that Cohen is “certainly not a source that is credible.” In an interview on the channel, he refused to speculate on what Cohen’s claim could mean for the president, legally. “It didn’t happen. That’s our position,” he said.
The infamous meeting was agreed upon after a Russian official “offered to provide the Trump campaign” with negative information on Clinton as a means of “Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” Foreign governments are not allowed to interfere or assist U.S. presidential candidates in elections.
