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Trump: Michael Cohen is just a "weak person" making up a story about my business dealings with Russia

“He’s got himself a big prison sentence, and he’s trying to get a much lesser prison sentence by making up a story,” Trump said.
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Shortly after Michael Cohen pleaded guilty Thursday to lying to Congress about a Russian real estate deal President Trump allegedly sought as a candidate, Trump accused his former fixer and attorney of “making up a story” to get a reduced sentence.

“He’s got himself a big prison sentence, and he’s trying to get a much lesser prison sentence by making up a story,” Trump told reporters Thursday morning after Cohen appeared in federal court in Manhattan.

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He then continued: “Even if he was right, it doesn’t matter because I was allowed to do whatever I wanted during the campaign.”

“Even if he was right, it doesn’t matter because I was allowed to do whatever I wanted during the campaign.”

On Thursday, Cohen reversed his story on regarding the August 2017 testimony in which he told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that the Trump Organization’s efforts to build a Trump tower in Moscow had concluded in January of 2016, when the presidential campaign was heating up.

Read: Michael Cohen pleads to new guilty charge in the Mueller investigation

Now, Cohen is saying that the so-called “Moscow Project” kept going until June 2016, and once involved communications with Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, which was reported by the Washington Post. Trump said during his campaign that he didn’t have any business dealings in Russia.

Cohen’s guilty plea is the first time Trump and his businesses were named in an open court document as part of Robert Mueller’s ongoing probe into election meddling, and further indicated that Cohen is cooperating in Mueller’s investigation.

Read: Read the new charges against Michael Cohen After the plea, Trump called Cohen a “weak person, and not a very smart person.” In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations over arranged payments he had made to two women who alleged they had affairs with Trump, hoping they wouldn’t speak to the press before the election.

He’s also pleaded guilty to various financial misdeeds regarding tax evasion and the management of his taxi medallion enterprise.

Cover: U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions from the press while departing the White House November 29, 2018 in Washington, DC. Trump answered numerous questions regarding his former attorney Michael Cohen's recent court appearance and testimony before departing. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)