The star witness in ex-President Donald Trump's hush money trial admitted he lied to Special Counsel Robert Mueller during Tuesday's fiery cross-examination by the defense.
Michael Cohen, 57, first described his testimony to Mueller regarding his travels to Prague and deals with the Russians in an effort to interfere in the 2016 election as "untruthful" and "inaccurate," when pressed by Trump defense attorney Todd Blanche, Politico reported.
Later on, he admitted, "I'll say it's a lie."
Cohen confessed he lied to authorities on several occasions, citing his loyalty to Trump.
"I was being deceptive," Cohen said, according to the outlet. "I was trying to be protective... I was trying to be loyal."
"I was knee-deep into the cult of Donald Trump," he claimed in earlier testimony, the Washington Post reported.
Cohen pleaded guilty to eight counts, including tax evasion and campaign finance violations. In a plea deal, he said that "in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office" he kept information that would have been harmful to the candidate and the campaign from becoming public.
Cohen has testified that Trump directed him to buy porn star Stormy Daniels' silence about an affair she claims she had with Trump in 2006, and that Trump approved having the Trump Organization repay Cohen for the $130,000 he paid Daniels, shortly before the 2016 election.
Trump, the first ex-U.S. president to face criminal prosecution, denies having had sex with Daniels and has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records to allegedly cover up Cohen's reimbursements.
Cohen alleged that Trump became directly involved with the reimbursement scheme at the center of the case, after he initially told Cohen to "just take care of" Daniels' allegations.
Cohen remained loyal to the president during this period – even as Trump made it clear that he wanted his attorney to lie and refuse to cooperate with the government. The last time the pair spoke was shortly after the FBI raided Cohen's New York hotel room in April 2018.
"Don't worry. I'm the president of the United States. There's nothing here," Trump allegedly told Cohen during their final conversation. "Everything's going to be OK. Stay tough. You're going to be OK."
