Trump made the claim on Twitter, referring to Cohen’s testimony to Congress in which Cohen said the president lied to the public about business interests in Russia, lied to reporters about stolen Democratic emails and told Cohen to lie about hush payments to cover up sexual misconduct.
Trump wrote: “Bad lawyer and fraudster Michael Cohen said under sworn testimony that he never asked for a Pardon. His lawyers totally contradicted him. He lied! Additionally, he directly asked me for a pardon. I said NO. He lied again! He also badly wanted to work at the White House. He lied!”
Cohen quickly responded in a tweet of his own, calling Trump’s assertions “lies.”
Cohen wrote: “Just another set of lies by @POTUS @realdonaldtrump. Mr. President...let me remind you that today is #InternationalWomensDay. You may want use today to apologize for your own #lies and #DirtyDeeds to women like Karen McDougal and Stephanie Clifford.”
Cohen was referring to two women who had claimed to have had affairs with the president and who were paid to keep quiet about them during the 2016 presidential campaign.
The question of whether Cohen sought a pardon has been a point of contention since his testimony last week before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, when he said under oath that he had never sought one.
His current lawyer, Lanny J. Davis, acknowledged this week that Cohen’s previous lawyer had inquired about a pardon soon after the FBI searched Cohen’s home and office in April 2018. But Davis said that inquiry came about because the president’s team had “dangled” the possibility of one in implicit statements.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.