Trump calls Michael Cohen a ‘weak person’ after new plea deal

President Donald Trump on Thursday called Michael Cohen a “weak person” after his former personal lawyer reached a plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller over lying to congressional investigators about a Russia real estate project.

Speaking to reporters on the White House lawn as he left for the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, Trump also said that Cohen was “not a very smart person” who he accused of lying to get a more lenient sentence and press attention.

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Cohen appeared in court in Manhattan on Thursday morning and admitted to lying to the Senate Intelligence Committee about the timeline regarding his work on a project to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, which took place during the presidential campaign.

Trump defended the project on Thursday, telling reporters he had ultimately dropped the Trump Tower Moscow project, but had the deal gone through, “it would be nothing wrong. I was running my business while I was campaigning.”

“There was a good chance that I wouldn’t have won, in which case I would have gotten back into the business,” Trump said. “And why should I lose lots of opportunities?”

He also insisted that the project was public knowledge. “It was a well-known project during the early part of [20]16 and I guess even before that. It lasted a short period of time,” Trump claimed.

Cohen’s latest admission is separate from a plea he entered in August, in which he pleaded guilty to fraud relating to his taxi medallion businesses, bank fraud and campaign finance violations stemming from his work with Trump. Following that plea, Cohen agreed to cooperate with Mueller on his investigation into whether or not the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election.