March 1, 2019

Trump Seizes on Cohen’s Old Book Proposal to Accuse Him of Perjury

The president appears to share the same obsession Republicans have with Cohen’s media efforts.

Martin H. Simon/ZUMA

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President Donald Trump lashed out at Michael Cohen on Friday morning, accusing his former longtime attorney and fixer of committing perjury during his explosive testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform earlier this week, which included allegations that Trump is a “racist” and a “con man.”

In a string of tweets, Trump claimed that he had just learned of the existence of a “love letter to Trump” manuscript that Cohen had shopped around in hopes of securing a book deal. “Book is exact opposite of his fake testimony, which now is a lie!” he tweeted.

Trump was likely referring to year-old reports of Cohen’s efforts to publish a book—which had reportedly portrayed Trump positively—that conservative outlets have resurfaced in recent days and seized on to suggest Cohen provided false statements to Congress by disparaging his former boss.

The president’s perjury accusation echoes similar allegations from two Trump loyalists who sit on the oversight committee, Reps. Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows. “Mr. Cohen’s testimony is material to the Committee’s assessment of Mr. Cohen’s motive to monetize his former association with President Trump,” the congressmen wrote to the Justice Department on Thursday. “It is essential that the Department of Justice investigate these remarkable contradictions between Mr. Cohen, the SDNY prosecutors, and the public accounts of witnesses with firsthand information.”

On Friday, Trump also appeared to suggest that Cohen was participating in a Democratic plot to investigate his finances—an area the president has previously described as a “red line” that could potentially prompt his intervention in the special counsel’s Russia probe.

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