Michael Cohen testimony: Trump’s ex-lawyer to tell Congress president is a ‘racist and conman’

Donald Trump’s former lawyer is set to deliver explosive testimony before Congress – claiming the president “is a racist, a conman and a cheat”.

Michael Cohen, the man who who once said he would take a bullet for the president, will tell politicians he is ashamed of what he did – allegedly at the behest of the man who occupies the Oval Office.

“I am ashamed of my weakness and misplaced loyalty – of the things I did for Mr Trump in an effort to protect and promote him,” he will tell the House of Representatives’ oversight and reform committee.

“I am ashamed that I chose to take part in concealing Mr Trump’s illicit acts rather than listening to my own conscience.”

According to an advanced copy of the 52-year-old’s remarks, first obtained by the New York Times, he will add: “I am ashamed because I know what Mr Trump is. He is a racist. He is a conman. He is a cheat.

“He was a presidential candidate who knew that Roger Stone was talking with Julian Assange about a WikiLeaks drop of Democratic National Committee emails.”

Last summer, Cohen pleaded guilty to charges of tax evasion, bank fraud, and campaign finance violations in relation to hush money payments made to two women, Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, on the eve of the 2016 election.

He also pleaded guilty to a separate charge brought by Robert Mueller’s office that he lied to Congress about discussions over the construction of a proposed Trump Organisation skyscraper in Moscow – referred to in court documents as the “Moscow Project”. He was sentenced to three years in jail and is due to start his sentence shortly.

Before he does, the former lawyer was asked to appear on Capitol Hill. On Tuesday, he appeared in private before members of the Senate. Afterwards he told reporters it would be up to the American people who to believe.

“I look forward to tomorrow to being able in my voice to tell the American people my story and I’m going to let the American people decide exactly who’s telling the truth,” he said.

Within hours if became clear just how dramatic he intended his appearance to be, ahead of his incarceration in May.

“In conversations we had during the campaign, at the same time I was actively negotiating in Russia for him, he would look me in the eye and tell me there’s no business in Russia and then go out and lie to the American people by saying the same thing,” Cohen intends to say. “In his way, he was telling me to lie.”

He will add: “Mr. Trump did not directly tell me to lie to Congress. That’s not how he operates.”

Hours before he was to appear, Republican congressman Matt Gaetz, an ally of Mr Trump, suggested in a tweet that compromising information about Cohen’s private life might soon be released. “Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends,” he wrote.

Mr Gaetz later denied suggestions that his tweet amounted to witness intimidation. “It is challenging the veracity and character of a witness. We do it everyday,” he told the Daily Beast.

Cohen will testify he was intoxicated by Trump’s power.

“I am not a perfect man. I have done things I am not proud of, and I will live with the consequences of my actions for the rest of my life,” he will say.

“But today, I get to decide the example I set for my children and how I attempt to change how history will remember me. I may not be able to change the past, but I can do right by the American people here today.”

In a statement to The Washington Post, Mr Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, claimed Cohen was a liar.

“It’s pathetic. This is a lawyer who tapped his own client when he claimed he was being loyal. If you believe him you are a fool,” he said.

“He bragged he was connected to Russian organised crime and he may be. His father in law who gave him millions to [invest] was convicted of tax fraud in a money laundering operation. Let’s see if these Democrats want to ask about his many crimes having nothing to do with anyone but his coterie of business associates with questionable connections.”