Donald Trump's personal attorney on Thursday accused the president's disgraced former lawyer of lying to Congress last week when he said he 'never' asked the White House for a pardon.
Cohen told the House Oversight Committee last week: 'I have never asked for, nor would I accept, a pardon from Mr. Trump.'
That appears to be untrue: Cohen's current lawyer, former longtime Bill Clinton confidant Lanny Davis, told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that Cohen 'directed' his then-attorney to seek presidential clemency after FBI agents raided his home, office and hotel room and arrested him.
And Rudy Giuliani, who represents Trump's personal legal interests, was in the room when Cohen's first lawyer, Stephen Ryan, made his pitch.
Davis said that Cohen isn't currently seeking a pardon to erase the eight guilty pleas that led to his impending three-year prison sentence, and insisted that has been the case since Cohen retained him on July 2, 2018.
Giuliani tweeted Thursday that Davis's statement left a gaping hole in Cohen's timeline: the nearly eight weeks after the April 9, 2018 raids.
'The defense now to Cohen saying under oath he NEVER asked for a pardon is a familiar one; What’s The Meaning of Never,' Giuliani tweeted. 'Serial liars often try the same deception too often. Let’s hope Congress and DOJ are outraged at Cohen’s disrespecting them by perjuring himself repeatedly.'
Giuliani's reference to a 'familiar' dodge was a jab at Davis's former longtime client, the 42nd president, who once famously covered up a lie about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky by dissembling about 'the meaning of the word "is".'
Disgraced former Trump attorney Michael Cohen is going to prison for three years in May and claimed last week in sworn testimony that he 'never' asked President Trump for a pardon – but his lawyer Lanny Davis now concedes that Cohen's first attorney asked White House legal counsels about a pardon last year
President Trump has almost certainly dismissed the idea of pardoning Cohen, who turned on him and accused him of committing crimes while in office
Cohen is pictured Wednesday with attorney Lanny Davis at the U.S. Capitol after giving closed-door testimony to the House Intelligence Committee; Davis, a former attorney for President Bill Clinton, confirmed that Cohen 'directed' his first criminal lawyer to seek a pardon
Clinton's evasive moment, captured in Special Prosecutor Ken Starr's report, came during grand jury testimony when he described telling curious aides that 'There’s nothing going on between us.'
'It depends on what the meaning of the word "is" is,' he told the grand jury. 'If the – if he – if "is" means is and never has been, that is not – that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement,' he testified.
'If someone had asked me on that day, are you having any kind of sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky, that is, asked me a question in the present tense, I would have said no. And it would have been completely true.'
