Donald Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen wrapped up hours of explosive congressional testimony by warning that the US president may not accept a “peaceful transition of power” if he loses re-election in 2020.
“Given my experience working for Mr Trump, I fear that if he loses the election in 2020, that there will never be a peaceful transition of power,” he said in a final statement to the House Oversight and Reform Committee after hours of public testimony.
In a total five hours of testimony before the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, Cohen admitted that he lied in the previous testimony.
He went on to say how Trump was not forthcoming about his relationship with the Russian government, especially regarding plans for a Trump Tower in Moscow. Rob Mueller lead investigator of the probe said that Trump had sought a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2015, a year before the elections.
He also said that Trump had prior knowledge regarding WikiLeaks plan to release Hillary Clinton emails. Cohen also said that he was reimbursed with a personal cheque of $35,000 by Trump—first of the 11 instalments to Stormy Daniels, who claimed to have an affair with him over a decade ago.
Trump has said that he avoided service in the Vietnam War due to bone spurs that rendered him unable to fight. But he confided to Cohen that he did not serve in Vietnam as he thought it was a 'stupid thing to do,' Cohen said in his testimony.
“You don't use your power of your bully pulpit to destroy the credibility of those who speak out against you,” Cohen said. He also said he hoped his testimony “helped in order to heal America”.
In a retort to his former lawyer's testimonial, President Donald Trump said, "He lied a lot." Trump told a press conference in Vietnam after his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that Cohen's testimony provided no evidence of collusion by the Trump campaign with Russia in the 2016 US election.
Cohen told the lawmakers that while he had no direct knowledge of collusion he had suspicions.
Trump complained that the testimony took place during the summit with Kim.
He again insisted the probe into Russian collusion is a "hoax" and a "witchhunt" and went on to say that the hearing was fake.
