US President Donald Trump has put the credibility of his formal personal lawyer back under the spotlight, accusing Michael Cohen of lying under oath to lawmakers when the lawyer denied ever asking Trump for a presidential pardon.
Cohen, addressing a congressional committee in a public hearing on February 27, said, "I have never asked for, nor would I accept, a pardon from President Trump."
Trump said on Friday Cohen told a number of lies, including about wanting a job at the White House and the pardon.
"Additionally, he directly asked me for a pardon," Trump said Friday on Twitter.
"I said NO. He lied again!"
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"He's lied about a lot of things, but when he lied about the pardon, that really was a lie," Trump earlier told reporters at the White House.
Cohen's spokesman Lanny Davis told ABC news this week that Cohen's statement to congress was technically true, as he had never personally asked Trump for a pardon.
Davis said Cohen had "directed" his lawyer to explore a pardon being dangled by Trump's legal team, adding this was prior to July 2018, when Cohen stopped being part of Trump's team and later began to co-operate with prosecutors.
Trump in December called Cohen a "rat" for co-operating with prosecutors and has said he should go to prison.
In public testimony last week before a House of Representatives panel, Cohen called Trump, his employer for more than 10 years, a "racist," "conman" and "cheat".
"Just another set of lies," Cohen tweeted after Trump's latest remarks. He recalled two women Trump is alleged to have had affairs with and paid hush money to silence about the matter, including Stormy Daniels.
Cohen says he paid Daniels hush money through a tabloid newspaper that bought her story, and that Trump reimbursed him in monthly installments through 2017, when he was president.
Cohen is set to begin serving a three-year prison sentence on May 6 for bank and tax fraud, campaign finance violations and previously lying to congress about a real estate deal in Moscow he was involved in for the Trump Organization.
He said he worked on the Moscow project for nearly a year while Trump was running for president.
Cohen this week launched a $2.7 million lawsuit against his former employer, saying he has not received payments for his expenses since he began to co-operate with prosecutors.
