Donald Trump has claimed his former attorney Michael Cohen pitched a “love letter” to publishers which portrayed the president in a positive light.
“Wow, just revealed that Michael Cohen wrote a ‘love letter to Trump’ manuscript for a new book that he was pushing,” the president tweeted on Friday morning. “Written and submitted long after Charlottesville and Helsinki, his phony [sic] reasons for going rogue.”
“Book is exact opposite of his fake testimony, which now is a lie,” he added.
Cohen revealed in an explosive public testimony on Wednesday that he had intentions to write a book at some point about his experiences working for Mr Trump.
The president’s former lawyer had said in his testimony he was appalled by Mr Trump’s actions surrounding the Charlottesville white nationalist protests that led to the death of activist Heather Heyer, as well as his performance on the national stage during a controversial summit in Helsinki with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Mr Trump appeared to allege Cohen was writing a book that was favourable towards the president after these events.
“Congress must demand the transcript of Michael Cohen’s new book, given to publishers a short time ago,” Mr Trump continued in a follow up tweet. “Your heads will spin when you see the lies, misrepresentations and contradictions against his Thursday testimony.”
“Like a different person! He is totally discredited!” the president wrote.
The allegations Cohen’s book proposals featured positive descriptions of the president appeared to come from Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Thursday, who made the claims on his show.
Mr Carlson claimed “Cohen wrote the book proposal long after Charlottesville and Helsinki”.
The host appeared to be citing a Daily Mail report, journalist Matthew Gertz noted.
The outlet claimed to have reviewed a copy of the manuscript, writing: “At the time he had nothing but good things to say about his boss who had entered the White House a little more than a year earlier.”
The president continued tweeting throughout the morning: “Oh’ I see! Now that the 2 year Russian Collusion case has fallen apart, there was no Collusion except bye Crooked Hillary and the Democrats, they say, ‘gee, I have an idea, let’s look at Trump’s finances and every deal he has ever done.’”
“’Let’s follow discredited Michael Cohen and the fraudulent and dishonest statements he made on Wednesday.’”
“No way,” he added. “It’s time to stop this corrupt and illegally brought Witch Hunt. Time to start looking at the other side where real crimes were committed. Republicans have been abused long enough. Must end now!”
Mr Trump wrote later in the morning about Cohen’s supposed book: “Michael Cohen’s book manuscript shows that he committed perjury on a scale not seen before. He must have forgotten about his book when he testified. What does Hillary Clinton’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, say about this one. Is he being paid by Crooked Hillary. Using her lawyer?”
