Cohen to accuse Trump over WikiLeaks, Moscow project, hush payments

[WASHINGTON] Michael Cohen, the former "fixer" for US President Donald Trump, plans to testify on Wednesday that Trump knew ahead of time about a leak of emails that would hurt his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

Cohen will also say that Trump directed negotiations for a real estate project in Moscow even as he campaigned for the presidency and publicly stated he had no business interests in Russia, according to a draft of Cohen's planned testimony.

In the text of his planned statement before a House of Representatives committee, Cohen calls Trump a "racist", a "conman" and a "cheat" and said he would be handing over documents to support his assertions.

Cohen says Trump ordered him to pay US$130,000 to an adult film actress known as Stormy Daniels in order to cover up an affair in violation of campaign finance laws, and also told Cohen to lie about it to First Lady Melania Trump.

REUTERS