WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen told lawmakers on Wednesday he was aware of other possible illegal acts involving Trump that he could not discuss because they were under investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.
Cohen, Trump’s onetime “fixer,” was asked at a congressional committee hearing if he was aware of other wrongdoing or illegal acts regarding Trump that had not been discussed before the panel.
“Yes, and again those are part of the investigation that is currently being looked at by the Southern District of New York,” Cohen replied, referring to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan.
Cohen told the hearing that he was assisting with those investigations in hopes that prosecutors would file what is called a Rule 35 motion on his behalf recommending that his three-year prison sentence be reduced due to his cooperation.
“If those investigations become fruitful, then there is a possibility of a Rule 35 motion,” Cohen said. “I am currently working with them on several other … investigations.”
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan declined to comment.
Cohen met with federal prosecutors in Manhattan last month and provided information about potential irregularities at the Trump Organization and a donor to the president’s inaugural committee, the New York Times reported last week.
The meeting with Cohen indicates prosecutors are interested in matters at the Trump Organization that go beyond its role in the illegal hush payments before the 2016 presidential election made to women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump.
Cohen was handed the three-year sentence by a federal judge in Manhattan in December after he pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations over his arranging hush payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, both of whom claimed to have had sex with Trump.
Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s longtime chief financial officer, received grand jury immunity from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, according to a person familiar with the matter.
In addition to probing the hush payments, federal prosecutors in Manhattan also sent a subpoena to Trump’s inaugural committee about $107 million in donations in 2016.
Reporting by Doina Chiacu, Sarah N. Lynch and Nathan Layne; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Lisa Shumaker