Cohen was defending himself. Trump was not. And Mr. Trump yet again -- settled.
Donald Trump's company and his former longtime lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen have settled a lawsuit over Cohen's claims that he was unfairly stuck with big legal bills after getting entangled in investigations into the former president.
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SUMMERS: OK, and let's talk about that a bit. I mean, the president, as you point out, his lawyers - the former president and his lawyers are likely to attack your credibility, your reliability as a witness. So I want to ask you, though, are you prepared to be cross-examined in a potential trial of former President Donald Trump?
COHEN: Absolutely. I have - for the past five years, I have consistently stated the same things. And one of the things that most people are completely unaware of - and it's very upsetting because I've been yelling it from the rooftops for over five years now.
Yes, I pled guilty to what's called the thousand-and-one violation. That's lying to Congress. I did. I lied to Congress. But when people stop at that sentence, it's unfair.
SUMMERS: How so?
COHEN:
I lied to Congress at the direction of, in coordination with and for the benefit of Donald J. Trump. And more importantly, let me just reinforce to you what the lie was. The lie I told Congress was the number of times that I stated that I spoke to Donald Trump about the failed Trump Tower Moscow real estate project in - during that time period.
SUMMERS: And, Mr. Cohen, if I could just...
COHEN: What was it?
I stated three times when the true answer was 10. That's the big lie. So anybody who thinks that that's going to stop my credibility, I think they don't understand the process.
SUMMERS: You have just said yourself that you were convicted of lying to Congress, and you've laid out the statements that you've made there. I just want to ask why, then, should people believe you now?
COHEN: Well, because there's nothing that I have said five years ago versus today that has changed. I continuously state the same things. I want people to also understand that I had 48 hours within which to make a determination to plead guilty. That's a Friday from 5:30 p.m. I talk about this in the book "Revenge." From 5:30 p.m. was the first time I learned that they were going to be charges brought against me. And if I didn't come in and plead guilty on Monday, they were filing an 80-page indictment that was going to include my wife. And so that - knowing my Achilles heel, which is my wife and my children, I accepted the plea.
