After the news broke Thursday night Michael Cohen is prepared to tell Special Counsel Robert Mueller Donald Trump knew about the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting at the time it took place, the president weighed in on Twitter, as expected.
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, called for Trump Jr. to come back before the committee and answer some questions since he told investigators in September 2017 his father did not know about the meeting.
MSNBC contributor Donny Deutsch, a friend of Cohen's, said Friday morning he believes Trump had to know about the meeting.
"In my past conversation with Michael, what he’s made very clear to me is ... nothing went on in this business without Don knowing about it, and he led me to believe that he could bring Trump back to Russia,” Deutsch said.
“What came out yesterday to me was not a surprise, based on conversations Michael and I had had,” he added. “I don’t want to use his exact words, but that everything that was going on, Trump knew about.”
“Did he reference this meeting in particular when you talked to him?” fellow "Morning Joe" contributor Willie Geist asked.
“Yes, he did,” Deutsch replied, adding that someone else was in the room when they discussed the meeting.
Trump and his allies are on the attack against Cohen, ultimately aiming to paint the president's longtime personal attorney as a liar. However, given his long, close relationship with the president, that strategy could backfire.
Trump is enraged over about the Cohen revelations, according to another person close to him, and the president’s legal team is moving swiftly to discredit the man who served as Trump’s lawyer for more than a decade.
It was an awkward argument for many of the president’s advisers, who argued that Cohen can’t be trusted, but offered little explanation as to why Trump had leaned so heavily on an allegedly dishonest lawyer for so long.
Speaking of possible lies, CNN is keeping track of all the times President Trump, Trump Jr., and their associates have denied the president knew anything about June 9th meeting before it took place. The total, so far, is 20. Four of the denials come from the president himself.
CNN:
Reuters interview on July 12, 2017: "No. That, I didn't know. Until a couple of days ago, when I heard about this. No, I didn't know about that."
Press gaggle on July 12, 2017: "Don is -- as many of you know Don -- he's a good boy. He's a good kid. And he had a meeting, nothing happened with the meeting. It was a short meeting as he told me -- because I only heard about it two or three days ago..."
New York Times interview on July 19, 2017:
MICHAEL SCHMIDT: Did you know at the time that they had the meeting?
TRUMP: No, I didn't know anything about the meeting.
SCHMIDT: But you didn't --
TRUMP: It must have been a very important -- must have been a very unimportant meeting, because I never even heard about it.
MAGGIE HABERMAN: No one told you a word, nothing? I know we talked about this on the plane a little bit.
TRUMP: No, nobody told me. I didn't know noth-- It's a very unimportant -- sounded like a very unimportant meeting.
Tweet on July 27, 2018: "NO,... I did NOT know of the meeting with my son, Don jr. Sounds to me like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out of an unrelated jam (Taxi cabs maybe?). He even retained Bill and Crooked Hillary's lawyer. Gee, I wonder if they helped him make the choice!"
MSNBC contributor: Cohen told me Trump knew ‘everything’ about Trump Jr. meeting with Russians (The Hill)
Trump camp escalates counterattack on 'pathological liar' Cohen (Politico)
20 times Trump and his allies denied he knew of the 2016 Trump Tower meeting (CNN)