Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, has sent Congress a letter denying points of the unsubstantiated dossier that included information about the now-infamous alleged “pee-tape.”
Cohen, through his own lawyer, asked the House Intelligence Committee to “discern and publicly disclose” who paid for the dossier and attempted to clear his name as investigations continue into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia in an attempt to alter the 2016 presidential election.
The New York Times first reported of the existence of the letter, which the Daily Beast published in full on Thursday. In the letter, Cohen “vehemently denies” the claims about him in the letter. The letter does not directly address some of the dossier’s more salacious accusations, which became the source of a myriad of memes.
“Mr. Cohen vehemently denies the claims made in the dossier about him, which are false and remain wholly unsubstantiated,” the letter reads. “We believe the allegations are so profoundly wrong about Mr. Cohen that the dossier is libelous and any repetition of its allegations by the Committee should be rejected.”
In the letter, Cohen’s lawyer denies several allegations about Trump’s lawyer including Cohen having secret meetings with Kremlin officials in August 2016 in Prague. Cohen’s January “I have never been to Prague in my life” tweet denying the allegation went viral.
The letter also says Cohen was “not aware” of any “secret Trump campaign/Kremlin relationship,” as described in the dossier.
“Mr. Cohen is not aware of any impropriety related to Mr. Trump’s ‘relationship’ with Russia, nor is he aware of Mr. Trump having an improper political relationship with officials of the Russian Federation,” the letter states.
In denying the claims, Cohen’s lawyer, Stephen Ryan, said he does not believe that an “interview or testimony” with the Committee involving information from the dossier “is warranted.”
The investigation into Russia ties continues to move forward, with Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor leading the Justice Department’s investigation, teaming up with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to investigate Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager.
Manafort was among the high-ranking Trump campaign officials who met with a Russian lawyer who allegedly promised to deliver them damaging information on Hillary Clinton.