Trump lawyer admits lying to Congress over president’s Russian affairs

The former lawyer of US President Donald Trump has admitted he lied to Congress amid an investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election.

Michael Cohen, who served as then-businessman Trump’s personal lawyer for several years, pleaded guilty following charges filed by special counsel Robert Mueller last night.

Cohen said that he had included false information in a written statement about plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

“I made these misstatements to be consistent with individual one’s political messaging and out of loyalty to individual one,” Cohen told the court. He has in the past identified individual one as Trump.

The lawyer, who already pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, tax evasion and bank fraud in August, was slammed by Donald Trump as a “weak person” this afternoon.

Trump accused Cohen of lying in a bid to negotiate a reduced sentence. The president told reporters he had decided not to build in Moscow, however he did not specify when.

Special counsel Mueller is leading a team investigating ties between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, or anything else arising from his findings.

A centrepiece of the investigation is a meeting at Trump Tower in New York between Donald Trump Junior and Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer who denies reported ties to the Kremlin.

Last night Trump’s lawyer Rudi Giuliani said the president has told Mueller he was unaware of the June 2016 meeting where Trump Jr had been promised dirt on presidential opponent Hillary Clinton.

“Almost all the answers he gave are consistent with what he said publicly, and publicly he said he did not know about it,” Giuliani said.