WASHINGTON - Donald Trump on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to bar a prosecutor from obtaining his tax returns, arguing that as president he has blanket immunity.
Trump, a former New York businessman, is the first American president since Richard Nixon not to make his tax returns public, arguing they're under audit by the Internal Revenue Service.
Opposition Democrats have turned to the courts to force their release in a case that's considered a crucial test of the separation of powers. And if the US high court -- where conservative judges hold the majority -- decides to take up the case, their decision will receive endless scrutiny.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr, a Democrat, has demanded Trump's tax returns dating back to 2011 as part of an investigation into payments made by Michael Cohen, the president's former personal attorney, to Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress who claimed to have had a sexual liaison with Trump before he ran for president in 2016.
Last week, a federal appeals court ruled that Trump must hand over the documents.
But the president's attorneys argue that he enjoys immunity both from prosecution and from any acts of investigation.
"For the first time in our nation's history, a state or local prosecutor has launched a criminal investigation of the President of the United States and subjected him to coercive criminal process," Trump's attorney Jay Sekulow said, according to US media.
"Politically motivated subpoenas like this one are a perfect illustration of why a sitting president should be categorically immune from state criminal process," he said.
At a hearing on the case on Oct. 23, one of Trump's lawyers went so far as to argue that the president would have immunity even if he shot someone in the street -- a statement immediately challenged by jurists and mocked by Democrats.
There have been various other attempts to obtain the returns by Democratic lawmakers in New York and in the House of Representatives.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
LYNCHBURG, Virginia - Evangelical leader and prominent Donald Trump backer Jerry Falwell Jr personally approved real estate transactions by his nonprofit Christian university that helped his personal fitness trainer obtain valuable university property, according to real estate records, internal university emails and interviews.
Around 2011, Falwell, president of Liberty University in Virginia, and his wife, Rebecca, began personal fitness training sessions with Benjamin Crosswhite, then a 23-year-old recent Liberty graduate. Now, after a series of university real estate transactions signed by Falwell, Crosswhite owns a sprawling 18-acre racquet sports and fitness facility on former Liberty property. Last year, a local bank approved a line of credit allowing Crosswhite's business to borrow as much as $2 million against the property.
Falwell, one of the most influential right-wing Christian leaders in the United States, has been buffeted by disclosures about his private dealings over the last year and a half.
A Florida lawsuit brought public scrutiny to a relationship between the Falwells and Giancarlo Granda, a young man they befriended while he was working as a pool attendant at a luxury Miami Beach hotel and later backed in a business venture involving a youth hostel. Falwell filed an affidavit in 2018 saying he used his own wealth to lend $1.8 million to the $4.65 million project with Granda.
And U.S. President Trump’s now-jailed fixer, Michael Cohen, has said he helped the Falwells suppress racy personal photos, as Reuters reported this May, in the months before Cohen persuaded Falwell to endorse Trump’s 2016 White House bid. There is no evidence that Cohen’s efforts to suppress the photos were a quid pro quo for Falwell’s vital political backing.
The support Falwell provided to the two young men, Granda and Crosswhite, has some parallels. Both were aided in business ventures and both have flown on the nonprofit university’s corporate jet.
One difference: When Falwell helped Crosswhite, he used the assets of Liberty, the tax-exempt university he has led since 2008. Among the largest Christian universities in the world, Liberty depends on hundreds of millions of dollars its students receive in federally backed student loans and Pell grants.
In 2016, Falwell signed a real estate deal transferring the sports facility, complete with tennis courts and a fitness center owned by Liberty, to Crosswhite. Under the terms, Crosswhite wasn’t required to put any of his own money down toward the purchase price, a confidential sales contract obtained by Reuters shows.
Liberty committed nearly $650,000 up front to lease back tennis courts from Crosswhite at the site for nine years. The school also offered Crosswhite financing, at a low 3% interest rate, to cover the rest of the $1.2 million transaction, the contract shows.
Crosswhite declined to answer questions about the deal. "All I will say is that my wife and I consult each other before every major business deal and we bought the complex from Liberty together," he said in an email. "My wife and I both work around the clock to make our business succeed."
Falwell referred Reuters to the university for comment. Liberty issued a statement describing the transaction as both proper and beneficial for the school.
Liberty had received the athletic center as a gift in 2011 from a trustee who has since died, but it quickly became a “drain on university resources,” the statement said. Crosswhite had been leasing gym space at the property since 2013, and was thus “the most viable purchaser.” Liberty said it adjusted the price and financed Crosswhite’s purchase because its tennis team would continue to use the courts.
Falwell has “tried to be a business mentor” to Crosswhite, the university statement said, but that effort did not “cause him to abandon his fiduciary duties” to Liberty.
As Liberty’s leader, Falwell draws an annual salary of nearly $1 million, and is obligated to put the university’s financial interests before his own personal interests when conducting Liberty business.
“The concern is whether the university’s president wanted to do his personal trainer a favor and used Liberty assets to do it,” said Douglas Anderson, a governance specialist and former internal audit chief at Dow Chemical Co, who reviewed both the transaction and Liberty's explanation of it at Reuters’ request. That would be bad governance, he said. “At a minimum, the terms suggest the buyer got a great deal and Liberty got very little.”
The Crosswhite Athletic Club is set off a quiet residential lane about seven miles from Liberty’s campus. Its large windowless buildings house indoor tennis and racquetball courts, a gym and pavilion.
During a visit by a reporter in August, Crosswhite, a muscular 31-year-old with short blond hair, was training a client in the well-equipped facility, running him through kettlebell swings and dumbbell presses. On a wall: A sign for “Crosswhite Fitness,” with a cross where the T should be, and a citation to a verse from the New Testament’s Second Epistle to the Corinthians.
Falwell has publicly credited Crosswhite with helping him lose 75 pounds. “That’s the kind of guy he is,” Crosswhite told Reuters. He asked Reuters to submit written questions about his dealings with Liberty and Falwell, but did not respond to them.
PITCHING A ‘SWEET DEAL’
The story of the business relationship between Crosswhite, Liberty and Falwell appears to begin in 2011.
That year, Falwell urged other Liberty personnel in an email to cut Crosswhite a “sweet deal” allowing him to offer private gym training at the Lynchburg fitness facility, then known as the Sports Racket, which Liberty had recently acquired through the trustee’s donation.
“Becki and I wouldn’t mind working out over there with Ben as a trainer because it is more private,” he wrote in the email, which was reviewed by Reuters. Falwell and his wife, who goes by Becki, each work out with Crosswhite twice a week, the university said. Falwell has become a vocal advocate of the trainer’s skills, as have other university executives and clients who work with Crosswhite.
The Falwells brought the trainer along on Liberty’s private jet during a 2012 trip to Miami. Later, Falwell sent an email directing Liberty to lease its gym space to Crosswhite’s fitness business, which began a five year lease in 2013. The cost, according to a lease document: $2,300 per month.
Liberty said Falwell uses the university-chartered jet to fly every year to his annual physical in Miami. Crosswhite joined him in 2012 “to explain to the doctors Mr. Falwell’s diet and exercise program and help document the results,” the university said. Because Liberty’s board requires an annual physical for Falwell, the president doesn’t have to reimburse the university for the corporate jet travel to Miami, the statement said.
It was in Miami in 2012, as well, that Falwell met Granda, the pool attendant he would later finance in business. The financial ties between Falwell and Granda have been detailed by BuzzFeed and others.
In 2016, Falwell signed the deal transferring the facility to Crosswhite. The contract says the price is $1.2 million, but notes that the “Net Purchase Price” is $580,000, because Liberty “agrees to credit” Crosswhite with rental payments for seasonal use of the site’s tennis courts through 2025. The courts are used by Liberty’s tennis team for practices and tournaments.
Liberty “agrees to finance the purchase” at a 3% interest rate, the contract says. To help Crosswhite in the transaction, Liberty was lending Falwell’s fitness trainer more than half a million dollars to buy its property. The university would receive no cash up front from the sale, the contract shows.
Transactions on such favorable terms could raise concerns over stewardship of corporate assets, and potentially insufficient scrutiny by the board, said Anderson, the independent governance specialist.
In 2017, after Liberty had sold the facility to Crosswhite, some university representatives voiced concern about whether the indoor tennis courts and roof over them were receiving needed maintenance, as the sales contract required, internal emails show. Falwell wasn’t included in the email chain.
Liberty’s general counsel, David Corry, responded that the school should remind Crosswhite of his maintenance obligations, according to the email exchange, which was reviewed by Reuters. But Corry, referring to Liberty University by its initials, added a note of caution: “Ben Crosswhite enjoys a close working relationship with several LU administrators, including the President.” Anyone communicating with Crosswhite should do so “with knowledge ahead of time that it may be second guessed,” Corry wrote.
Asked about Corry's warning, Liberty said he was raising the possibility that Crosswhite might complain to any one of "several people" at Liberty if he felt he was being treated "harshly" over the maintenance obligations. Therefore, Liberty said, the university needed to "have an approach that was not only legally sound, but cordial, professional and above reproach."
In 2017, Liberty provided Crosswhite with another $75,000 line of credit to conduct maintenance and repairs, the university said in its statement.
In an email sent earlier this month, Corry, citing a Reuters reporter’s “persistent” attempts to reach former board members and the Falwells, reminded the former trustees they had signed confidentiality agreements. He told them they were required “forever” to keep secret what they knew about the university.
Crosswhite’s acquisition of the sports facility appears to continue benefiting him. Last year, according to a Lynchburg Circuit Court filing, the trainer's business obtained a $2.05 million credit line from a local bank against its interest in the facility. Liberty said the credit line amount was linked to the property’s future value after Crosswhite builds a swimming pool there.
On April 23, 2018, the day after the $2.05 million bank financing, Liberty University filed paperwork saying the $576,000 note Crosswhite owed for the property had been paid in full.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - Court documents released Thursday closely tied President Donald Trump and his former top aide Hope Hicks to hush money paid to a porn actress ahead of the 2016 election.
But a New York judge said the investigation into the payment was closed, making it likely that neither the president nor anyone but his former lawyer Michael Cohen will be punished for them.
The FBI warrant requests released Thursday show the law enforcement agency believed Trump and Hicks were intimately involved in arranging the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels -- the screen name for Stephanie Clifford.
The documents map out a flurry of phone calls and text messages in October 2016, when Cohen was arranging the payment to Daniels to keep her from going public with her claim of an affair years earlier with Trump.
The exchanges involved Cohen, Daniels' attorney Keith Davidson, media executives David Pecker and Dylan Howard, Trump and Hicks, and came as Daniels was quietly offering to sell her story about Trump to media just weeks before a hotly contested election.
Cohen was ultimately convicted and imprisoned on campaign finance and other violations.
NUMEROUS CALLS
The documents show eight calls, including two involving Trump and three with Hicks, on October 8, 2016, as Cohen prepared a plan to buy Daniels' silence at, he has said, Trump's direction.
The FBI noted that before that day, Cohen had not spoken by phone to Trump or Hicks -- Trump's campaign press secretary and then his White House communications director -- for several weeks.
It took weeks to finalize the deal, after communications suggested that Daniels was still preparing to sell her story to Britain's Daily Mail.
After some panicky communications, on October 26 -- two weeks before the election -- Cohen spoke to Trump multiple times. Over the next two days, he created a shell company to handle the payoff and transferred the funds.
"Based on the timing of the calls... and the content of the text messages and emails, I believe that at least some of these communications concerned the need to prevent Clifford from going public," an FBI investigator wrote.
Trump, who has both denied knowledge of the payment and argued they were not a crime, was implicated as "Individual-1" in court documents last year in the Cohen case, raising the possibility that he too could be charged for the hush money payment.
ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION
The court ruled that the payment to Daniels, which Trump later repaid to Cohen, amounted to an illegal campaign contribution because it aimed at helping Trump win the election.
The documents also show Cohen liaising with Trump, Hicks and White House advisor Kellyanne Conway in early November 2016 over a looming Wall Street Journal story that the National Enquirer had bought the silence of another alleged former Trump lover, Karen McDougal.
When the story gained little traction in other media, Hicks and Cohen enthused in text messages that the efforts to counter it had worked.
Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow on Thursday hailed the closure of the investigation in a statement to media.
"We have maintained from the outset that the President never engaged in any campaign finance violation," he said.
Cohen said in a statement, issued through his publicist, that Sekulow's comments were "completely distorted and dishonest."
"The conclusion of the investigation exonerating The Trump Organization's role should be of great concern to the American people and investigated by Congress and the Department of Justice," he said.
Adam Schiff, the Democratic Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, questioned whether the Department of Justice had ended the investigation in order to protect Trump.
"The inescapable conclusion from all of the public materials available now is that there was ample evidence to charge Donald Trump with the same criminal election law violations for which Michael Cohen pled guilty and is now serving time in prison," Schiff said in a statement.
"Were Individual-1 not protected by the DOJ opinion prohibiting the indictment of a sitting president, he would be criminally charged as Cohen's co-conspirator."
pmh/wd
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - Months before evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr.’s game-changing presidential endorsement of Donald Trump in 2016, Falwell asked Trump fixer Michael Cohen for a personal favor, Cohen said in a recorded conversation reviewed by Reuters.
Falwell, president of Liberty University, one of the world’s largest Christian universities, said someone had come into possession of what Cohen described as racy “personal” photographs -- the sort that would typically be kept “between husband and wife,” Cohen said in the taped conversation.
According to a source familiar with Cohen’s thinking, the person who possessed the photos destroyed them after Cohen intervened on the Falwells' behalf.
The Falwells, through a lawyer, declined to comment for this article.
Cohen, who began a three-year prison sentence this week for federal campaign violations and lying to Congress, recounted his involvement in the matter in a recording made surreptitiously by comedian Tom Arnold on March 25. Portions of the recording -- in which Cohen appeared to disavow parts of his guilty plea -- were first reported April 24 by The Wall Street Journal.
The Falwells enlisted Cohen’s help in 2015, according to the source familiar with Cohen’s thinking, the year Trump announced his presidential candidacy. At the time, Cohen was Trump’s confidant and personal lawyer, and he worked for the Trump Organization.
The Falwells wanted to keep “a bunch of photographs, personal photographs” from becoming public, Cohen told Arnold. “I actually have one of the photos,” he said, without going into specifics. “It’s terrible.”
Cohen would later prove successful in another matter involving Falwell, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Cohen helped persuade Falwell to issue his endorsement of Trump’s presidential candidacy at a critical moment, they said: just before the Iowa caucuses. Falwell subsequently barnstormed with Trump and vouched for the candidate’s Christian virtues.
Reuters has no evidence that Falwell’s endorsement of Trump was related to Cohen’s involvement in the photo matter. The source familiar with Cohen’s thinking insisted the endorsement and the help with the photographs were separate issues.
Cohen’s connection to the Falwells sheds light on the formidable alliance between Trump and a man who, through his university, is one of the most influential evangelical figures in America. Falwell’s backing helped galvanize evangelicals and persuaded many Christians concerned about Trump’s past behavior to embrace him as a repentant sinner.
Falwell’s support for Trump has not wavered throughout the New York celebrity-politician’s own tribulations, including the Access Hollywood recording of Trump talking about grabbing women’s genitals and payoffs made by Cohen to hide Trump’s extramarital affairs. This past weekend, Falwell tweeted that “Trump should have 2 yrs added to his 1st term” to make up for the two years of the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
BLOCKBUSTER ENDORSEMENT
Falwell’s endorsement of Trump, however, did surprise some students and staff at Liberty University, the school in Lynchburg, Virginia, founded by Falwell’s father, Jerry. It was at Liberty where fellow Republican presidential candidate and major Trump rival Ted Cruz had chosen to launch his campaign the previous year. Cruz’s father was an evangelical preacher, much like Falwell’s father; Trump has been married three times and divorced twice. For years, prior to running for president, Trump boasted of his sexual exploits and supported a host of social positions, such as abortion rights, that run counter to beliefs espoused by Falwell.
Although Falwell declined interview requests for this story, he has said repeatedly that he endorsed Trump because Trump was the strongest candidate, had significant experience running a business, and had the right vision for the country.
The connection between Trump and Falwell goes back years. In 2012, Trump gave the convocation at Liberty University. One link between Trump and the couple appears to have been Cohen, a now-disbarred New York lawyer who formed a close bond with the Falwells.
During the campaign, Cohen worked closely with Liberty University to help promote Trump’s candidacy. It was around that time that Cohen heard from the Falwells about the photographs, said the source familiar with Cohen’s thinking.
The Falwells told Cohen that someone had obtained photographs that were embarrassing to them, and was demanding money, the source said. Reuters was unable to determine who made the demand. The source said Cohen flew to Florida and soon met with an attorney for the person with the photographs. Cohen spoke with the attorney, telling the lawyer that his client was committing a crime, and that law enforcement authorities would be called if the demands didn’t stop, the source said.
The matter was soon resolved, the source said, and the lawyer told Cohen that all of the photographs were destroyed.
Months later, in early 2016, Trump faced what seemed like an enormous challenge. The Iowa caucus was coming up, and Cohen -- then deeply loyal to Trump -- was concerned about how Trump would fare, the source said. Cohen felt Trump “was being slaughtered in that community,” and “didn’t want to see him embarrassed or, you know, without support,” said the source familiar with Cohen’s thinking. Cohen repeatedly reached out to Jerry Falwell, and pleaded with him to back Trump, the source said.
Soon after, according to this account, Falwell made his historic announcement. “I am proud to offer my endorsement of Donald J. Trump for President of the United States,” Falwell was quoted saying in a statement issued by the Trump campaign. “He is a successful executive and entrepreneur, a wonderful father and a man who I believe can lead our country to greatness again.”
source: news.abs-cbn.com
NEW YORK -- After dramatic appeals and testimony in Congress, Donald Trump's one-time personal lawyer Michael Cohen is due to report to jail Monday to serve a sentence he deems unjust because he was simply following his boss's orders.
The longtime Trump admirer who once said he was ready to "take a bullet" for Trump is awaited at the federal prison in Otisville, New York by 2:00 pm.
He was sentenced to 3 years in prison in December, after admitting to having paid hush money during the 2016 election to 2 women who said they had had affairs with Trump -- in violation of electoral laws -- having committed tax fraud, and having lied to Congress.
The father of 2 children in their twenties, Cohen had hoped until the last moment that his sentence would be reduced, offering information to investigators that could compromise Trump and his family, including over the Russia investigation.
But even if Special Counsel Robert Mueller referred to the ex-attorney more than a hundred times in his report on Russian meddling in the US elections, prosecutors have not budged on Cohen's sentence.
WHY COHEN?
The child of a Holocaust survivor and a nurse will become one of just 2 close aides of the president jailed for a lengthy period of time after Paul Manafort, Trump's ex-campaign manager who was sentenced to 7.5 years of prison.
Cohen worked for the Trump Organization for a decade and insists that all reprehensible acts took place at the behest of the president, who the ex-attorney claims would be ready to cling to power even if he loses his bid for a second term in 2020.
"How come I'm the only one?" Cohen asked in an interview with The New Yorker.
"I didn't work for the campaign. I worked for him. And how come I'm the one that's going to prison? I'm not the one that slept with the porn star," he added, referring to Stormy Daniels, one of the women who received hush money.
Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis said Friday that the president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, should have gone to prison since he "signed hush money checks."
For the American president and his allies, Cohen's prison sentence has the taste of payback after the one-time attorney turned on his boss.
Trump called him "weak" and a "rat" ready to make up any lies necessary to avoid prison.
FINAL STATEMENTS
Cohen, who has been disbarred and is running out of cash, has not said his last word.
This weekend, he told reporters following him in Manhattan as he spent his last moments of freedom with his son Jake, a student in Miami, that he would make some final statements Monday before going behind bars.
When he spoke to lawmakers earlier this year, Cohen mentioned plans to write a book and have his experiences made into a film.
In doing so, he would be following the example of Richard Nixon's ex-lawyer John Dean, who pleaded guilty for having bought the silence of the Watergate scandal burglars, and then wrote a book about his experience.
The Otisville prison conditions should allow Cohen to spend at least some time on such projects.
He is due to be held in the detention center's low-security "camp," which holds detainees who are not considered to be dangerous, including many other white collar criminals.
Practicing Jews who are sentenced often request to be placed at Otisville because it provides kosher meals and detainees are allowed to follow the Shabbat day of rest.
The 120-some prisoners of this wing of the center can use libraries, as well as basketball and tennis courts while wearing their beige uniforms.
Can Cohen hope for an expedited release for good behavior?
"Because Congress eliminated parole in 1987, the best he can hope for is a 15 percent reduction off his sentence for 'good behavior,'" said criminal defense attorney Harlan Protass.
"He'll also likely spend the last 6 months of his sentence in a halfway house, like where former Congressman Anthony Weiner is now."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Monday filed suit to keep U.S. lawmakers from obtaining his financial records, the first salvo in what promises to be an escalating legal battle with Democrats in Congress.
The suit seeks to block a subpoena issued by the Democratic chairman of the U.S. House Oversight Committee for information about Trump's personal and business finances, alleging Democrats have launched "all-out political war" on Trump with subpoenas as their "weapon of choice."
The committee's subpoena sought eight years of documents from Mazars USA, an accounting firm long used by Trump to prepare financial statements, related to its investigation of allegations Trump inflated or deflated financial statements for potentially improper purposes.
Elijah Cummings, the House Oversight Committee chairman, issued the subpoena to the president's accountant after Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, testified to Congress in February that Trump had misrepresented his net worth.
"Chairman Cummings' subpoena is invalid and unenforceable because it has no legitimate legislative purpose," Trump's lawyers said in a filing, arguing it exceeded constitutional limits on the power of Congress to investigate.
"Its goal is to expose Plaintiffs’ private financial information for the sake of exposure, with the hope that it will turn up something that Democrats can use as a political tool against the President now and in the 2020 election," they said.
In a statement on Monday, Cummings said there was no valid legal basis to try to block the subpoena and accused the White House of "unprecedented stonewalling" in refusing to produce a single document or witness to the committee.
"This complaint reads more like political talking points than a reasoned legal brief, and it contains a litany of inaccurate information," Cummings said.
The filing was the first effort by Trump's legal team to quash multiple investigations of Trump and his finances by Democratic-led committees in Congress. His lawyers made it clear they would resist those efforts.
"Democrats are using their new control of congressional committees to investigate every aspect of President Trump’s personal finances, businesses, and even his family," Trump's lawyers said.
"Instead of working with the President to pass bipartisan legislation that would actually benefit Americans, Democrats are singularly obsessed with finding something they can use to damage the President politically," they said.
The Trump Organization, the president's privately owned real estate company, is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit. Trump is suing in his individual capacity, and is represented by a private law firm rather than government lawyers from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Republicans on the Oversight Committee also had objected to the subpoena from Cummings, arguing it was an abuse of congressional authority to target the private financial information of Trump.
"As a firm we will respect this process and will comply with all legal obligations," Mazars said in a statement. "As with all clients, we are precluded by our professional code of conduct and corporate policy from commenting further on inquiries of this nature."
Ross Garber, a Washington lawyer who focuses on political investigations, said the lawsuit might be dismissed because of the Speech or Debate Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which offers broad legal protection to members of Congress for actions they undertake as legislators.
But Garber also said there was some merit to Trump's argument that the subpoena was brought for the improper purpose of unearthing politically damaging information about him, rather than for a legitimate legislative purpose.
"Congressional authority is vast but it is not unlimited, and the complaint raises potentially legitimate questions,” Garber said, adding that Congress would have a stronger basis for the request if it had initiated impeachment hearings, when courts have said its investigative powers are heightened.
Garber said disputes between the White House and Congress over documents are often resolved through negotiation, rather than lawsuits, and that a compromise was still possible.
The filing said Democrats have issued more than 100 subpoenas and requests "to anyone with even the most tangential connection to the President."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
NEW YORK -- Global stocks mostly fell Wednesday amid uncertainty over trade and an escalating India-Pakistan conflict as the British pound rallied for a second session.
An Asian market rally ran out of steam after Pakistan said it had shot down 2 Indian jets in its airspace in Kashmir, fueling concerns of conflict between the nuclear-armed rivals.
While both sides have sought to play down the threat of war, the rare aerial engagement over the divided and disputed territory of Kashmir significantly raised the stakes in a standoff sparked by a suicide attack on the Indian-controlled side earlier this month.
"Rising geopolitical tensions dominates trading, sending global equities... lower as India clashes with Pakistan," said Oanda analyst Dean Popplewell.
Markets in Asia finished mixed, while Paris, London and Frankfurt all declined. On Wall Street, both the Dow and S&P 500 retreated, while the Nasdaq edged higher.
Investors eyed a series of high-profile hearings in Washington, including a session on trade with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who reported "real progress" on talks with China but said significant work still needed to be undertaken before a final deal is struck.
President Donald Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen revealed a litany of charges about his former boss in an explosive hearing that captivated political observers but did not appreciably move stocks.
The British pound advanced for a second day after British MPs overwhelmingly voted to give Prime Minister Theresa May more time to work on her EU withdrawal deal after she promised they could delay Brexit if necessary.
Any delay must be approved by the other 27 EU member states and the bloc's leaders have agreed to look at any request from Britain.
But some questioned what it would achieve without a breakthrough in London, where MPs still cannot agree how to implement the 2016 Brexit referendum result.
Oil prices rose after US petroleum stockpiles showed a drop in supplies.
Among individual companies, Air France-KLM tumbled over 10 percent after Paris reacted bitterly to a move by the Dutch government to take a stake in the airline almost equal to that held by the French government.
US health insurers UnitedHealth Group and Humana each lost almost five percent, and rival Cigna shed 4.0 percent after Democratic US Representative Pramila Jayapal introduced "Medicare for all" legislation targeting insurance industry profits.
The bill is still a long way from becoming law but the proposal indicates strengthening momentum for the issue among progressive Democrats.
KEY FIGURES AROUND 5:50 A.M. THURSDAY, MANILA TIME
New York - Dow: DOWN 0.3 percent at 25,985.16 (close)
New York - S&P 500: DOWN 0.1 percent at 2,792.38 (close)
New York - Nasdaq: UP 0.1 percent at 7,554.51 (close)
London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.6 percent at 7,107.20 (close)
Frankfurt - DAX 30: DOWN 0.5 percent at 11,487.33 (close)
Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 0.3 percent at 5,225.35 (close)
EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 0.2 percent at 3,282.77 (close)
Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.5 percent at 21,556.51 (close)
Hong Kong - Hang Seng: DOWN 0.1 percent at 28,757.44 (close)
Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.4 percent at 2,953.82 (close)
Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3306 from $1.3252
Euro/pound: DOWN at 85.45 pence from 85.95 pence
Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1372 from $1.1389 at 2200 GMT
Dollar/yen: UP at 111.00 yen from 110.59 yen
Oil - Brent Crude: UP $1.18 at $66.39 per barrel
Oil - West Texas Intermediate: UP $1.44 at $57.94 per barrel
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen will tell lawmakers on Wednesday that Trump asked him several times about a proposed skyscraper project in Moscow long after he secured the Republican presidential nomination, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
As Special Counsel Robert Mueller appears to near the end of his probe into whether Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election in collusion with Trump's campaign, Cohen's assertion that Trump was inquiring about the skyscraper project as late as June 2016, if true, would show Trump remained personally engaged in the venture well into his candidacy.
Cohen was set to offer lawmakers new information about Trump's private affairs over three consecutive days of in-depth discussion with congressional committees that began on Tuesday with a closed hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The focus of the session, which lasted for roughly 9 hours, was mainly on what Cohen knows about Trump's dealings with Russia, as well as about Cohen's previous lies, two congressional sources said. Cohen apologized to the committee for lying to it in 2017, according to CNN.
In brief comments to the media after the Senate session ended, Cohen said he was looking forward to Wednesday's open hearing in the House where he plans to make his case for why people should believe him over Trump.
"I'm going to let the American people decide exactly who is telling the truth," Cohen said.
Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate committee, suggested Cohen's testimony was important to its probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
"Two years ago when this investigation started, I said it may be the most important thing I'm involved in in my public life in the Senate and nothing I have heard today dissuades me from that view," Warner told reporters outside the hearing room.
As Cohen testified, Republican U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz, a Trump ally, suggested in a tweet that there was compromising information about Cohen's private life.
Gaetz later told the Daily Beast that he was not engaging in witness intimidation. "It is challenging the veracity and character of a witness. We do it everyday," he said.
The lawmaker does not sit on the House Oversight Committee, which will be conducting Wednesday's hearing with Cohen, and therefore will not be allowed to ask him questions.
Lanny Davis, an attorney for Cohen, said: "We will not respond to Mr. Gaetz's despicable lies and personal smears, except to say we trust that his colleagues in the House, both Republicans and Democrats, will repudiate his words and his conduct."
Cohen was one of Trump's closest aides and once said he would "take a bullet" for him. But he turned against his former boss last year and is cooperating with prosecutors after pleading guilty to tax evasion, bank fraud and campaign finance violations.
Cohen has said Trump directed him to make hush-money payments to two women who said they had sexual relationships with Trump, in violation of campaign finance laws before the 2016 election.
Trump called Cohen a "rat" after he turned on him, and the White House again attacked Cohen's credibility on Tuesday.
"It's laughable that anyone would take a convicted liar like Cohen at his word, and pathetic to see him given yet another opportunity to spread his lies," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.
Trump has denied any collusion between his campaign and Moscow. Russia denies U.S. intelligence agencies' assertions that it interfered in the election.
Cohen has been disbarred, according to a decision by a New York state appeals court in Manhattan made public on Tuesday. Disbarment is automatic in New York for lawyers convicted of felonies.
Michael Monico, a lawyer for Cohen, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
'GRANULAR DETAILS'
On Wednesday, in a public session before the House Oversight Committee, Cohen intends to give lawmakers "granular details" about a hush-money payment to adult-film actress Stephanie Clifford, known as Stormy Daniels, and information about a "money trail" after Trump became president, said the person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified.
Cohen will also offer new information on Trump's financial statements that "have never been produced before" relating to how Trump represented the values of his assets in financial transactions and other matters, that person said.
Cohen will also offer first-hand anecdotes to illustrate Trump's "lies, racism and cheating" during the decade Cohen worked for the real estate mogul and provide "evidence of criminal conduct" since he became president, the source said.
Like Tuesday's hearing, his testimony on Thursday with the House Intelligence Committee will also be behind closed doors.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee plan to question Cohen publicly about Trump's personal finances, including the payments to women, as well as alleged efforts by Trump and his lawyers to intimidate Cohen to try to keep him from testifying.
Last November, Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress by telling lawmakers in 2017 that all efforts relating to the Moscow project had ceased by January 2016. In fact, Cohen said, those efforts continued until June 2016.
(Reporting by By Nathan Layne, Ginger Gibson and Mark Hosenball; Additional reporting by Susan Heavey, Eric Beech and Timonthy Ahmann in Washington and Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Tomasz Janowski, Alistair Bell, Peter Cooney and Richard Chang)
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WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen said on Thursday he had agreed to testify publicly before a congressional panel on Feb. 7, as U.S. House of Representatives Democrats began kicking off numerous investigations of Trump, his business interests and his administration.
Cohen said in a statement he had accepted an invitation to testify from Representative Elijah Cummings, the Democratic chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
"I look forward to having the privilege of being afforded a platform with which to give a full and credible account of the events which have transpired," Cohen said.
Cummings said the committee has no intention of interfering in ongoing criminal probes. He said, "To that end, we are in the process of consulting with Special Counsel Mueller’s office."
Special Counsel Robert Mueller for many months has been investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, possible collusion between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign and potential obstruction of justice.
Russia has denied U.S. intelligence agencies' findings that it meddled in the 2016 campaign, while Trump has denied any collusion with Moscow and called Mueller's probe a "witch hunt." The investigation has clouded Trump's presidency.
Cohen was sentenced in December to three years in prison for his role in making illegal hush-money payments to two women to help Trump in 2016 in violation of campaign laws, and for lying to Congress about a proposed Trump Tower project in Russia.
Cohen once said he would take a bullet for Trump, who called his former close confidante a "Rat" on Twitter in mid-December.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said he hoped to schedule a closed-door hearing with Cohen later to discuss the Russia probe.
"Mr. Cohen has expressed an interest in telling his personal story in open session, and we welcome his testimony before the Committee on Oversight and Reform," Schiff said in a statement.
After Cohen was sentenced, Lanny Davis, an attorney who has been advising him on his media strategy, said Cohen wanted to speak publicly about Trump.
"I look forward to assisting Michael to state publicly all he knows about Mr. Trump - and that includes any appropriate congressional committee interested in the search for truth and the difference between facts and lies," Davis said in a statement at the time.
Cohen, Trump's self-described longtime "fixer," pleaded guilty to the campaign finance charge in August and to making false statements in November.
At a hearing last August in federal court in New York, Cohen testified that Trump had directed him to commit a crime by arranging payments before the 2016 election to two women who said they had engaged in extramarital affairs with Trump.
Adult film star Stormy Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, was paid $130,000 and former Playboy model Karen McDougal was paid $150,000 by Cohen.
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WASHINGTON - Former FBI director James Comey lashed out at Donald Trump on Monday for telling "lies" and undermining the rule of law, and urged Republicans to stand up to the president.
"The FBI's reputation has taken a big hit because the president of the United States, with his acolytes, has lied about it constantly. In the face of those lies, a whole lot of good people... believe that nonsense," Comey told reporters in the halls of the US Senate.
"People who know better, including Republican members of this body, have to have the courage to stand up and speak the truth."
Comey spoke after a spurt of anti-FBI tweets from the president over the past week alleged that the investigative body abused its powers in probing his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen and his former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Cohen and Flynn have both been convicted for various crimes and have both offered evidence potentially damaging to their former boss.
With Cohen, Trump tweeted on Sunday: "The FBI did something which was absolutely unthinkable & unheard of until the Witch Hunt was illegally started. They BROKE INTO AN ATTORNEY'S OFFICE!"
In fact the FBI had a court order to search Cohen's office.
As for Flynn, Trump alleged that he had been tricked into lying in a January 2016 interview with the FBI that led to his arrest.
"So General Michael Flynn's life can be totally destroyed while Shadey James Comey can Leak and Lie," Trump tweeted earlier this month.
Comey said that politicians, and especially Republicans, have to stop remaining quiet when Trump makes false statements.
"Republicans used to understand that the actions of a president matter, the words of a president matter, the rule of law matters, and the truth matters. Where are those Republicans today?"
"At some point, someone has to stand up and in the face of fear of Fox News, fear of their base, fear of mean tweets, stand up for the values of this country, and not slink away into retirement, but stand up and speak the truth."
Comey spoke after his second closed-door testimony in a week during which he was quizzed on his oversight of an investigation into the mishandling of sensitive emails by Trump's 2016 rival Hillary Clinton during the election.
While the Justice Department has closed the issue after an internal review, Trump and Republicans seeking to protect him from the Russia collusion investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller want the Clinton probe reopened.
Trump fired Comey in May 2017 after the latter refused to swear his allegiance and roll back the nascent investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Mueller is now believed to be investigating whether that firing and other actions amount to obstruction of justice by the president.
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NEW YORK - President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen was sentenced to 3 years in prison on Wednesday for orchestrating hush payments to women in violation of campaign laws before the 2016 election and financial crimes, posing potential legal and political risks to Trump.
In the courtroom, Cohen told US District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan that "blind loyalty" led him to cover up for Trump. The sentence imposed by Pauley was a modest reduction from the 4 to 5 years recommended under federal guidelines but still highlighted the seriousness of the charges and possible implications for the president.
The sentencing capped a stunning about-face by a lawyer who once said he would "take a bullet" for Trump. Cohen said in a guilty plea in August that he was directed by Trump to make hush money payments to 2 women who said they had sexual affairs with the president in the past. Trump has denied the affairs and any involvement in the payments.
Pauley sentenced Cohen to 36 months for the payments and to 2 months for Cohen's lies to Congress about a proposed Trump Tower project in Russia. The 2 terms will run simultaneously. The judge set March 6 for Cohen's voluntary surrender.
As part of the sentence, the judge ordered Cohen to forfeit $500,000 and pay restitution of nearly $1.4 million.
Cohen, 52, walked into court with his wife, son, and daughter amid a crowd of photographers and reporters. His 23-year-old daughter, Samantha, and 19-year-old son, Jake, both wept silently in the courtroom, the son wiping his eyes with his jacket sleeve. After being sentenced, Cohen walked over to his daughter and kissed her head.
Cohen's father, Maurice Cohen, who showed little emotion during the hearing, later told reporters: "My heart is ripped."
Cohen pleaded guilty in August to charges including tax evasion, bank fraud, and campaign finance violations in a case brought by federal prosecutors in New York.
Cohen was sentenced on a separate charge of lying to Congress brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russia's role in the 2016 election and possible coordination between Trump's campaign and Moscow. Cohen pleaded guilty to that charge last month.
Federal prosecutors in New York charged that Cohen, just before the Nov. 2016 election, paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 and helped arrange a $150,000 payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal so the women would keep quiet.
Federal law requires that the contribution of "anything of value" to a campaign must be disclosed, and an individual donation cannot exceed $2,700.
"It was my own weakness and a blind loyalty to this man that led me to choose a path of darkness over light," Cohen told the judge during the sentencing hearing.
"I felt it was my duty to cover up his own dirty deeds," Cohen said, referring to Trump.
The Mueller investigation represents a threat to Trump's presidency. Mueller, who also is examining whether the president has unlawfully sought to obstruct the probe, has secured guilty pleas from several former Trump aides including his former campaign chairman and national security adviser, as well as a series of Russia individuals and entities.
'MOST POWERFUL PERSON'
The judge, in remarks before handing down Cohen's sentence, said the lawyer committed 2 campaign finance crimes "on the eve" of the 2016 election with the "intent to influence the outcome of that election."
"While Mr. Cohen pledges to help in further investigations that is not something the court can consider now," the judge added.
Lawyer Lanny Davis, who has advised Cohen, praised Cohen for cooperating and said he would continue to do so.
"At the appropriate time, after Mr. Mueller completes his investigation and issues his final report, I look forward to assisting Michael to state publicly all he knows about Mr. Trump - and that includes any appropriate congressional committee interested in the search for truth and the difference between facts and lies," Davis said in a statement.
"Mr. Trump's repeated lies cannot contradict stubborn facts."
Cohen is a former member of Trump's inner circle who in the past called himself the president's "fixer." After Cohen pleaded guilty to the Mueller charges on Nov. 29, Trump called his former lawyer a liar, "a weak person and not a very smart person."
Trump last month submitted written answers to questions posed in Mueller's investigation.
Michael Avenatti, Daniels' lawyer, attended the sentencing and told reporters outside the courthouse, "Michael Cohen is neither a hero nor a patriot. He lied for months about his conduct. ... Michael Cohen was sentenced today, President Trump is next."
Trump has denied any collusion with Russia and has accused Mueller's team of pressuring his former aides to lie about him, his campaign and his business dealings. Russia has denied US allegations of interfering in the election to help Trump.
In his guilty plea to Mueller's charge, Cohen admitted he lied to Congress about the timeline for discussions about plans for real estate businessman Trump's proposed skyscraper in Moscow. The project never went ahead.
Cohen said in written testimony to 2 congressional committees that the talks ended in January 2016, before the first electoral contests to select the Republican presidential nominee, when they actually continued until June 2016 after Trump clinched the Republican nomination.
In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, Trump denied the payments to the women were campaign contributions. "If it were, it's only civil, and even if it's only civil, there was no violation based on what we did," Trump said.
Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani has argued the hush payments cannot be considered campaign finance violations because they were made to protect Trump's reputation and would have been made even if he had not been a presidential candidate.
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US President Donald Trump's intensifying attacks this week against the Russia collusion investigation underscore a growing nervousness over the how much evidence investigators may have accumulated on the 2016 Trump campaign's ties to Moscow.
In new charges unveiled Thursday by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, former top Trump aide Michael Cohen admitted direct communications with Russian President Vladimir Putin's office on behalf of Trump's business through the first half of 2016.
Trump, who earlier tweeted that the Mueller probe was an "illegal Joseph McCarthy style Witch Hunt," blasted Cohen as a "weak person" who lied to get a reduced sentence.
But the most recent news from the investigation suggests that Mueller, a cagey former FBI director, is holding back and could have more shocks in store for the US leader as he nears the conclusion of the 18-month-old investigation.
Cohen talked to top Putin aide
Cohen, who was Trump's personal lawyer and a senior executive in the president's real estate business, the Trump Organization, admitted to having lied to Congress about trying to negotiate a deal for a Trump Tower in Moscow well into the middle of 2016, even when Trump had wrapped up the Republican nomination for president.
Trump in the past denied any ongoing contacts with Moscow. But the criminal complaint filed Thursday depicts Cohen in regular contact with Putin's top spokesman Dmitry Peskov during that period, seeking to arrange a trip by Trump to Russia to meet Putin.
The complaint also says that Cohen kept senior Trump campaign figures, including members of Trump's family, informed of these efforts -- suggesting Trump himself might have been in the loop. That could be trouble for a number of people if they have denied to Mueller or Congress knowledge of Russia contacts during that period.
The WikiLeaks nexus
Mueller has already shown he has evidence that the Trump campaign and Trump's family entertained offers of dirt on Clinton from Russia.
He is expected to soon charge conservative activist Jerome Corsi and campaign advisor Roger Stone in relation to their alleged attempts to coordinate with WikiLeaks over July-October 2016 as the group published Democratic emails damaging to Trump's election rival Hillary Clinton.
The US says the emails were hacked by Russian intelligence which supplied them to WikiLeaks, aiming to tilt the election in Trump's favor. Mueller has already indicted 25 Russians as part of a criminal "conspiracy" to influence the election.
The key question is, does Mueller have evidence that, in trying to contact WikiLeaks, Corsi and Stone were working on behalf of and with the knowledge of Trump or top Trump campaign officials? And would that mean they could be seen as conspiring with the Russians?
Manafort's broken cooperation deal
On Monday Mueller accused former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort of violating a cooperation deal by lying to investigators. What the lies were about remains a mystery, but it could underscore what most observers believe: that Mueller has far more evidence than his targets know.
Trump has held out the possibility of a pardon to Manafort, who he says was treated "cruelly" by the investigation. Now questions are being raised on whether Trump has obstructed justice by suggesting the pardon.
Mueller's questionnaire for Trump
The new Cohen and Manafort charges came just after Trump returned answers to a long list of questions submitted to him by Mueller that focus on Russia contacts.
The White House delayed answering the questions since the beginning of this year, worried that Trump could be trapped in a possible lie by making statements contrary to evidence presented Mueller by others.
Trump's anger about the investigation raises the possibility that his answers might be contradicted by Cohen, Manafort and others.
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NEW YORK - Adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who has claimed she had a sexual encounter with U.S. President Donald Trump a decade ago, said on Wednesday that she has written a no holds barred memoir about her running legal battles with Trump and her life as a stripper.
Daniels, 39, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said on ABC's "The View" that her book, "Full Disclosure," would be released by St. Martin's Press, a subsidiary of MacMillan Publishers, on Oct. 2.
Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels.
Daniels said she wrote about her work as well as suing Trump. Her lawsuit seeks to void a non-disclosure agreement she signed just before the 2016 presidential election to remain silent about what she has called an "intimate" relationship with Trump.
She claimed in the lawsuit, filed in March in Los Angeles, that the non-disclosure agreement was invalid and she was free to publicly discuss her relationship with Trump because he never signed it.
Trump’s longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen has pleaded guilty to violating federal election law by paying Daniels $130,000 not to disclose information that would be harmful to Trump.
"You didn't really think I'd hold anything back?" Daniels said on TV on Wednesday.
St. Martin's Press said in a statement that Daniels' book would describe "the events that led to the nondisclosure agreement and behind the scenes attempts to intimidate her."
In April, Daniels filed a defamation lawsuit against Trump in a Manhattan court claiming that he had falsely attacked her truthfulness.
Earlier this year, Daniels said that in 2011 she was assailed by a man in a Las Vegas Parking Lot who threatened her if she discussed her alleged sexual encounter with Trump. In a tweet Trump described her claim as a "total con job."
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Attorney says Cohen has information for Mueller
Trump feels very badly for "brave" Manafort
Democratic leader wants delay on hearing for Supreme Court nominee
WASHINGTON - The White House pushed back forcefully on Wednesday against suggestions that a plea deal struck by President Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen implicated Trump in a crime.
"As the president has said, we've stated many times, he did nothing wrong. There are no charges against him," press secretary Sarah Sanders said at a White House briefing. "Just because Michael Cohen made a plea deal doesn't mean that that implicates the president on anything."
Cohen on Tuesday pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges of tax evasion, bank fraud and campaign finance violations. He told a federal court in Manhattan that Trump directed him to arrange payments ahead of the 2016 presidential election to silence two women who said they had affairs with Trump.
In the wake of the Cohen's plea, Senate Democrats on Wednesday demanded that upcoming confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh be delayed, with some calling Trump an "co-conspirator."
Earlier, the president lashed out at Cohen in a Twitter post by saying the campaign finance violations Cohen pleaded guilty to in federal court in New York were not a crime - even though prosecutors and Cohen agreed that they were. Trump made the claim without offering any evidence.
At the same time, Trump on Twitter praised former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who was convicted on Tuesday of multiple counts of fraud, as a "brave man" for not cooperating with federal authorities.
Fox News released excerpts of an interview conducted with Trump on Wednesday in which the president said he knew of the payments made by Cohen "later on" but did not elaborate.
After first denying that he knew anything about Cohen's actions, Trump earlier this year acknowledged he reimbursed Cohen for payments he made in late 2016 to Stormy Daniels, an adult-film actress whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. Daniels has alleged she had a relationship with Trump.
In July, CNN released an audio recording reportedly made by Cohen that features the lawyer and Trump in September 2016 discussing whether to buy the rights to the story of Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who also has alleged an affair with Trump.
The president has insisted he paid Cohen out of personal funds and that the payments were not intended to benefit his campaign but to resolve a personal matter.
"They weren't taken out of campaign finance. That's a big thing," Trump said in the Fox interview. "They didn't come out of the campaign; they came from me."
TIMING IS QUESTIONED
Trump critics have argued the case being made by the president that the payments to Daniels and McDougal were personal do not hold up given the timing – only weeks before the election.
"If this was a personal matter, why wasn’t she paid off after the affair or in the intervening decade?" said Paul S. Ryan, the head of litigation at Common Cause. "The election was what made her story valuable."
Cohen attorney Lanny Davis said his client had information that would be of interest to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating whether the 2016 Trump campaign conspired with Russia to influence the election. Davis set up a website to collect donations for Cohen's legal expenses.
Asked at the briefing if Trump was concerned about what Cohen might tell Mueller, Sanders replied: “I don’t think the president is concerned at all. He knows that he did nothing wrong and that there was no collusion."
New York investigators on Wednesday issued a subpoena to Cohen in connection with the state's criminal investigation of the Trump Foundation, a state official said.
Trump has granted presidential pardons to conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza and former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio but Cohen attorney Lanny Davis said his client would not accept one.
"Mr. Cohen is not interested in being dirtied by a pardon from such a man," Davis told NPR.
Cohen's plea came as Manafort was found guilty on eight charges in a separate financial fraud trial in Alexandria, Virginia, stemming from a federal investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and possible coordination with the Trump campaign.
In a morning tweet, Trump said, "I feel very badly for Paul Manafort and his wonderful family. 'Justice' took a 12 year old tax case, among other things, applied tremendous pressure on him and, unlike Michael Cohen, he refused to 'break' - make up stories in order to get a 'deal.'"
The Cohen and Manafort cases ratchet up political pressure on Trump and fellow Republicans ahead of November elections in which Democrats are seeking to take control of Congress.
The Mueller investigation, which has clouded Trump's presidency for more than a year, and Tuesday's developments also increase pressure on him personally. While Cohen did not name Trump in court on Tuesday, referring to him as "the candidate," Davis on Wednesday accused the president of being directly involved.
PRESSURE FROM DEMOCRATS
Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer, speaking on the Senate floor on Wednesday, insisted the confirmation hearing scheduled for Kavanaugh in early September be pushed back. Other Senate Democrats said they were canceling their meetings with Kavanaugh and considered his nomination tainted.
Schumer said he was concerned that Kavanaugh, a federal appeals judge, told him on Tuesday that presidents should not be subject to criminal or civil investigations – or even be required to comply with related subpoenas – while in office and that impeachment by Congress is the only legal recourse.
On the Senate floor, Schumer argued that Trump should not be permitted to select a Supreme Court justice who could ultimately end up hearing a case involving the president.
“A president identified as a co-conspirator of a federal crime, an accusation not made by a political enemy but by the closest of his own confidants, is on the verge of making a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, a court that may someday soon determine the extent of the president’s legal jeopardy,” Schumer said.
Congressional Republicans still were taking measure of the situation, with Senator John Cornyn, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, saying Cohen's "credibility is in tatters because he's basically been all over the map in terms of what his story is."
Cornyn said Congress would continue investigating claims of Russian interference in the 2016 election but noted that "nothing we heard yesterday has anything to do with Russia, or the reason why director Mueller was appointed special counsel."
Russia has denied U.S. intelligence community findings that it interfered with the 2016 election with the aim of boosting Trump and hampering Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton. Trump has denied any collusion by his campaign with Moscow and repeatedly called Mueller's investigation a witch hunt.
(Additional reporting by Amanda Becker, Susan Cornwell, Karen Freifeld, Ginger Gibson, Susan Heavey, and Lisa Lambert. Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh, Tim Ahmann and Bill Trott)
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