By Chris Dolmetsch and Christian Berthelsen
Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to a new federal charge and agreed to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, admitting that he lied to Senate investigators about his former boss’s business plans in Russia.
Cohen entered a new guilty plea in a New York courtroom on Thursday. Cohen admitted to lying in 2017 to Senate intelligence committee members who asked about Trump’s plans for a Moscow real estate project.
The new charge is notable because it is brought by investigators on Mueller’s team, who are looking into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russians in the 2016 election. Mueller had previously referred the Cohen matter to federal prosecutors in New York, where he pleaded guilty to campaign finance and tax violations earlier this year, and has cooperated with Mueller without a formal cooperation agreement. He’s spent dozens of hours providing testimony, a person familiar with the matter has said.
It’s a blow to Trump, who has escalated his attacks on the probe he calls a “witch hunt.” Mueller is investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, whether anyone close to Trump colluded in it and whether the president has sought to obstruct justice.
Trump continued bashing the Mueller probe on Thursday, writing on Twitter, “When will this illegal Joseph McCarthy style Witch Hunt, one that has shattered so many innocent lives, ever end-or will it just go on forever?”
