Senate panel cancels private interview with Trump lawyer

WASHINGTON -- A scheduled private meeting between President Donald Trump's personal lawyer and Senate committee staff was canceled abruptly Tuesday amid a dispute over a public statement he issued before the meeting.

Senate intelligence committee leaders said they called off the closed-door staff meeting after Michael Cohen sent a statement to the media as the interview was about to start.

Senate intelligence committee chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., and the panel's top Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, issued a terse statement saying the panel had asked Cohen to "refrain from public comment," and they would request he return -- this time for a public hearing.

"We declined to move forward with today's interview and will reschedule Mr. Cohen's appearance before the committee in open session at a date in the near future," Burr and Warner said in the statement. "The committee expects witnesses in this investigation to work in good faith with the Senate."

The Senate intelligence committee is one of several congressional panels investigating Russian interference in the presidential race and potential ties to the Trump campaign.

Special counsel Robert Mueller and his team of investigators are conducting their own criminal investigation.

It's unclear why Cohen's choice to make a statement public prompted the reaction from the committee. Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, released his 11-page prepared remarks to the panel before his interview with the Senate intelligence committee.

That interview went forward, with Kushner answering questions for hours behind closed doors.

Cohen stayed in the committee's offices about an hour and a half before emerging and telling reporters the committee had postponed his interview.

He did not give a reason for why the meeting was off, but his lawyer said they issued the statement because the meeting had been leaked to the press.

Cohen's interview had been expected to focus at least in part on a discussion to develop a Trump Tower in Moscow as the presidential campaign was unfolding, a real-estate deal he disclosed last month in a statement to congressional investigators.

In a prepared statement before his appearance, Cohen said the proposal was abandoned before the first Republican primaries and was "solely a real-estate deal and nothing more."

After leaving the committee's offices, Cohen attorney Steve Ryan said the "statement was factual, it was accurate, and we stand behind that statement." Ryan said Cohen intends to cooperate with the committee and the House panel voluntarily.

Cohen spoke briefly, saying "I'll be back."

Cohen disclosed details of the Moscow deal last month in a statement to congressional investigators, saying that he had worked on the real estate proposal with Felix Sater, a Russian-born associate who Cohen said had claimed to have deep connections to Moscow. Cohen also has said that he emailed Russian President Vladimir Putin's press secretary after Sater suggested that the proposal would require approvals within the Russian government.

The discussions about the potential development occurred in the fall of 2015, months after Trump had declared his candidacy, and ended early last year when Cohen determined that the project was not feasible.

In his statement Tuesday, Cohen said the proposal was "solely a real estate deal and nothing more."

"I was doing my job," he added.

The Trump Organization has previously said that the licensing deal "was not significantly advanced" and that no site or financing materialized during the negotiations.

Cohen also denounced allegations from a dossier produced by an opposition research firm, calling the document "lie-filled" and fabricated. He said he had never discussed with any member of the Russian Federation or anyone else a plan to hack into email accounts or to interfere with the election.

"Given my own proximity to the President of the United States as a candidate, let me also say that I never saw anything -- not a hint of anything -- that demonstrated his involvement in Russian interference in our election or any form of Russian collusion."