US President Donald Trump reportedly insists that Cohen lied in his testimony in private talks with his associates while declining to make any public comments.
“He's a liar,” the President told associates after the Cohen sentencing, the coverage having been carefully followed on television in the residence of the White House, CNN reported, citing administration officials.
According to sources, the US president was closely monitoring the television coverage of Cohen’s sentencing. The sources also told CNN that the President continues to say that his former lawyer had lied in his testimony.
Trump was intentionally silent during his one public event on Wednesday in the Roosevelt Room as reporters pressed Trump for a reaction to Cohen's three-year prison sentence and his allegations implicating Trump in federal crimes. The White House also didn’t provide any official comment on Cohen’s sentence.
Trump had earlier repeatedly claimed that Cohen lied to the investigators, having written in a tweet last week that “[Cohen] lied for this outcome and should, in my opinion, serve a full and complete sentence”.
Cohen has implicated Trump in a felony, saying he violated campaign finance laws at Trump's direction. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.
Cohen has been cooperating with Mueller in his investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia and has answered questions about Trump’s business dealings with Russia.
Moscow has denied all allegations, and Trump, in turn, called Cohen’s testimony “totally false” and repeatedly stated that the probe against him was a "witch hunt".
