Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen admits lying to Congress
Russian president would have been given £39m penthouse in Moscow in Trump Tower deal

A former lawyer for Donald Trump has admitted that he lied to Congress about a Russian property deal involving the US President during the 2016 election.
Michael Cohen admitted before a federal judge in Manhattan that negotiations to build a skyscraper in Moscow had continued until June 2016, while Trump was running for the White House – five months longer than Cohen had originally stated.
According to papers filed by special counsel Robert Muellers investigators, Cohen “made the false statements to (1) minimise links between the Moscow Project and [Trump] and (2) give the false impression that the Moscow Project ended before ‘the Iowa caucus and... the very first primary,’ in hopes of limiting the ongoing Russia investigations”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The BBC reports that Cohen lied to Congress “out of loyalty to Mr Trump”, while the US president has since accused his former lawyer of “lying to prosecutors in the hope of receiving a reduced sentence”.
“I made these misstatements to be consistent with individual 1’s political messaging and out of loyalty to individual 1,” Cohen said in court. He has previously identified “individual 1” to be Donald Trump.
Cohen has previously pleaded guilty to violating campaign funding laws during the 2016 election, when he disbursed hush money to several women who had claimed to have had affairs with Trump.
CNN reports that the deal to build a Trump tower in Moscow included an offer to gift a £39 million penthouse apartment in the building to Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Current Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani has dismissed the reports, denying that the US president had ever heard of it, and that the idea “never got anywhere beyond an unfunded letter of intent and never even a proposal or draft contract”.
However, the Washington Post reports that Cohen briefed Donald Trump on the project “on more than three occasions”, according to court filings.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
The state of Britain's Armed Forces
The Explainer Geopolitical unrest and the unreliability of the Trump administration have led to a frantic re-evaluation of the UK's military capabilities
By The Week UK
-
Anti-anxiety drug has a not-too-surprising effect on fish
Under the radar The fish act bolder and riskier
By Devika Rao, The Week US
-
Sudoku hard: April 21, 2025
The Week's daily hard sudoku puzzle
By The Week Staff
-
El Salvador's CECOT prison becomes Washington's go-to destination
IN THE SPOTLIGHT Republicans and Democrats alike are clamoring for access to the Trump administration's extrajudicial deportation camp — for very different reasons
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US
-
Supreme Court takes up Trump birthright appeal
Speed Read The New Jersey Attorney General said a constitutional right like birthright citizenship 'cannot be turned on or off at the whims of a single man'
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US
-
Court slams Trump, senator visits Ábrego García
Speed Read The case 'should be shocking not only to judges' but all Americans with an 'intuitive sense of liberty'
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
The anger fueling the Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez barnstorming tour
Talking Points The duo is drawing big anti-Trump crowds in red states
By Joel Mathis, The Week US
-
Judge threatens Trump team with criminal contempt
Speed Read James Boasberg attempts to hold the White House accountable for disregarding court orders over El Salvador deportation flights
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US
-
Why the GOP is nervous about Ken Paxton's Senate run
Today's Big Question A MAGA-establishment battle with John Cornyn will be costly
By Joel Mathis, The Week US
-
UK-US trade deal: can Keir Starmer trust Donald Trump?
Today's Big Question White House insiders say an agreement is 'two weeks' away but can Britain believe it?
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK
-
A running list of Trump's second-term national security controversies
In Depth Several scandals surrounding national security have rocked the Trump administration
By Justin Klawans, The Week US