President Donald Trump on Thursday argued that he “wasn’t trying to hide anything” while exploring a real estate deal in Moscow during the 2016 presidential campaign — the same deal about which his former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to lying to Congress.
Trump repeatedly claimed as a candidate and as President that he has no business ties to Russia. “I have nothing to do with Russia,” Trump said during the campaign.
On Thursday, he was singing a different tune.
“We had a position to possibly do a deal, to build a building of some kind in Moscow,” Trump told reporters near Marine One, after news of Cohen’s plea broke. “I decided not to do it.”
Trump claimed he didn’t pursue the deal because “I was focused on running for President.”
“There would be nothing wrong if I did do it,” he said, adding later: “I was allowed to do whatever I wanted during the campaign. I was running my business — a lot of different things — during the campaign.”
Watch below:
Trump on potential Moscow deal about which Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress: "I wasn't trying to hide anything." pic.twitter.com/wG8sHQnXnS
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) November 29, 2018
