BuzzFeed claims that two federal law enforcement officers are spilling the beans on Donald Trump. According to the unnamed enforcement officers, President Trump directed his long-time lawyer Michael Cohen, who is now cooperating with federal investigators, to lie to Congress about negotiations involving a potential Trump Tower in Moscow.
Cohen apparently claims that he was in charge of the potential real-estate project in Russia, and that he regularly updated not only Donald Trump, but Trump Jr. and Ivanka about the project. Cohen has since pleaded guilty to lying about the deal. Now, alleged evidence is emerging that Trump personally asked Cohen to lie.
Mueller’s investigation has reportedly uncovered emails, text messages, and other documents suggesting an active cover-up. The Mueller investigation claims these documents are backed by multiple eyewitnesses. Still, Cohen’s testimony is the first to suggest that Trump explicitly directed his subordinates to lie about the Moscow project.
More specifically, special counsel Robert Mueller has claimed that Cohen lied when he said the project ended in January of 2016, just as the presidential primary race was heating up. Negotiations actually continued for months afterwards, according to Cohen. In fact, it appears that negotiations continued until June, by which point Trump had all but secured the GOP ticket to run for president.
While BuzzFeed has historically been more widely known for listicles and pop culture content, the website has been aggressively ramping up its investigative journalism. Still, the “unnamed” sources are likely to draw flak.
Earlier this week, Trump’s attorney general nominee William Barr testified before Congress that if the president coached someone to lie before Congress, it could amount to obstruction of justice. Last year, Barr had claimed that Mueller’s obstruction case was weak, but that was long before the most recent evidence emerged.
Cohen Also Allegedly Paid to Rig Polls
Besides the Moscow project, Cohen has also been claiming that Trump directed him to rig polling data to benefit his campaign. Allegedly, Cohen paid a technology firm thousands of dollars to skew poll results in then-candidate Trump’s favor.
It appears, however, that the technology firm was ultimately unsuccessful in its efforts.
