Cohen turns over documents on Moscow project to House

WASHINGTON -- Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former lawyer, turned over documents to the House intelligence committee Wednesday showing edits to a false written statement he gave to the panel in 2017 about a Trump real estate project in Moscow.

Cohen provided the documents in a closed-door interview with the panel, according to two people familiar with the documents who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the confidential meeting.

It is Cohen's fourth day of testimony on Capitol Hill as he prepares for a three-year prison sentence for lying to Congress and other charges. Cohen acknowledged in a guilty plea last year he misled lawmakers by saying he had abandoned the project in January 2016 when he pursued it for months afterward as Trump campaigned for the presidency.

It's unclear who edited the documents or what exactly was changed. In public testimony last week, Cohen told the House Oversight and Reform Committee that Trump's attorneys, including Jay Sekulow, had reviewed and edited the statement he provided to Congress.

Sekulow has denied wrongdoing, saying in a statement after the hearing the "testimony by Michael Cohen that attorneys for the President edited or changed his statement to Congress to alter the duration of the Trump Tower Moscow negotiations is completely false."

The Trump Tower Project is one of many under scrutiny as the Democrat-led panel investigates Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether Trump's campaign was involved, among other matters, including Trump's foreign financial dealings.

Cohen has become a key figure in congressional investigations after turning on his former boss and cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller's probe. During last week's public testimony before the Oversight panel, he called Trump a con man, a cheat and a racist. He was also interviewed privately by both the Senate and House intelligence committees last week and returned to the House intelligence panel behind closed doors Wednesday.

Among the issues discussed in Cohen's closed-door interviews with the House and Senate last week were pardons, according to people familiar with those interviews. They spoke on condition of anonymity to reveal the confidential discussion.

The committee was expected to discuss the subject in Cohen's second day before the committee, according to one of the people familiar with the meeting.

Cohen told Congress last week he had never asked for and would not accept a pardon from Trump. But that may not be the full story.

According to people with knowledge of the situation, a lawyer for Cohen expressed interest to the Trump legal team in a possible pardon for his client after a raid last April on Cohen's hotel room, home and office. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

The president's attorneys were noncommittal during the conversation with Cohen's lawyer, the people said. Cohen did not participate in the conversation.

No pardon was given, and Cohen ultimately pleaded guilty and is cooperating against the president in separate investigations by the special counsel and by federal prosecutors in New York.