Michael Cohen testimony: The most damning claims made by Donald Trump's former lawyer

Michael Cohen claimed:  - Donald Trump made racist comments  - The President knew about the emails which damaged the Clinton campaign - 'Hush money' for Stormy Daniels was given to him directly by President Trump - Schools the President went to were 'threatened' to not release his grades
Jacob Jarvis27 February 2019

Donald Trump’s former lawyer levelled a string of damning accusations against the US President in testimony on Wednesday.

Michael Cohen explained at length why he branded the Mr Trump a “racist” and a “conman."

Speaking to a House committee, he said he was “ashamed” at some of the tasks he claims to have done on Mr Trump’s behalf.

The former legal "fixer" spoke out after pleading guilty to lying to Congress about Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 Presidential election.

Michael Cohen was under oath while he testified
EPA

President Trump has accused Cohen of lying so he can reduce the prison time he serves for his crimes.

The Standard has detailed some of the key points made in his testimony.

Allegations of racism

Cohen called President Trump a racist early on in his testimony, before expanding on alleged comments made by his former boss.

Cohen alleged he once heard Mr Trump say black people “would never vote for him because they were too stupid.”

He also claimed: “Mr Trump once asked me if I could name a country ran by a black person that wasn’t a s***hole.

“This was when Barack Obama was President of the United States.”

Mr Trump has denied charges of racism before.

He has said: “I've never used racist remarks."

Hush money

Cohen says that President Trump personally signed cheques repaying him for hush money paid to porn actress Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had an affair with Mr Trump.

Following this Cohen presented a check for $35,000 dated August 2017 to the House.

Stormy Daniels claims to have had an affair with Donald Trump
AP

Cohen has pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations connected to a $130,000 hush-money deal linked to the affair.

President Trump denies any affair with Stormy Daniels.

As well as this, Cohen claims he was told by President Trump to “lie” about the affair to the First Lady, which he said he regrets,

President Trump ‘knew about Hillary Clinton emails’

Cohen claims Mr Trump knew in advance, through his confidante Roger Stone, that WikiLeaks was planning to release emails which were damaging to his rival Hilary Clinton’s campaign.

Cohen says Mr Stone told Trump he had spoken on the phone with Julian Assange, who ran the anti-secrecy WikiLeaks group, and there would be a "massive dump" of emails harmful to the Clinton campaign.

Roger Stone and President Trump knew about the emails, Cohen says
REUTERS

President Trump denies prior knowledge and Mr Stone has since said this is “not true”.

Cohen also claims President Trump knew about a meeting at Trump Tower in 2016, where Donald Trump Jr met with a Russian lawyer who claimed to have “dirt” on Mrs Clinton.

Donald Trump Jr told President Trump about the 'dirt' meeting, Cohen says
AP

He said the President’s son walked behind his father’s desk and said “the meeting is all set”, to which he said Mr Trump replied: “Ok good, let me know.”

In hindsight, he says he believes this was linked to the meeting.

Cohen added that he does not know whether President Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election, but has "suspicions" about it.

‘Conman’ claims

President Trump adjusted reports of his wealth so he could rank highly on the Forbes rich list but then reduced it for tax purposes, Cohen alleges.

Cohen says financial documents showed the President inflated his assets to rank higher on the Forbes world's billionaires list then reduce them to pay lower real estate taxes.

Mr Trump was called 'conman' by Cohen
AFP/Getty Images

As well as this, despite claiming to be “brilliant”, the President is accused of bullying his former schools into not releasing any of his test scores so they cannot be scrutinised.

Cohen also said he would provide letters he wrote at Mr Trump's behest threatening his high school and colleges not to release his grades or test scores.

He claimed to have "copies of letters I wrote at Mr. Trump's direction that threatened his high school, colleges, and the College Board not to release his grades or SAT scores."

Furthering on his comments on President Trump’s personality Cohen called him an “enigma”.

The President had “good and bad” he said: “But the bad far outweighs the good, and since taking office, he has become the worst version of himself.”

Trump ‘knew Moscow tower project continued’

Cohen stated President Donald Trump lied to the American people about negotiations during the 2016 presidential campaign about a proposed Trump Tower project in Russia.

The former fixer said the President “knew of and directed" the negotiations about a proposed Trump Tower in Moscow.

Cohen pleaded guilty last year to lying to Congress about the timing of the business proposal and says while President Trump didn't "directly" tell him to lie to Congress about the project he did so "in his way."

Cohen says that while he was negotiating the Russian business deal during the campaign, Trump would look him in the eye and tell him "there's no business in Russia”.

He said the President lied because he did not expect to win the election, which Cohen says he saw as just a “marketing” project for him.

Trump 'avoided going to Vietnam'

According to the prepared testimony, Cohen also detailed remarks he claimed President Trump made regarding the Vietnam war.

Cohen spoke of how Mr Trump said he did not consider Vietnam Veteran and Prisoner of War Senator John McCain to be "a hero", because he dislikes people who were captured in wartime.

Cohen also claims the President tasked him to handle the negative press surrounding his medical deferment from the Vietnam draft.

Mr Trump claimed it was because of a bone spur, Cohen said, however when asked for medical records he gave none and said there was no surgery.

Cohen alleges he finished a conversation with: "You think I'm stupid, I wasn't going to Vietnam."

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