Trump knew about email hack, Cohen tells Congress

US President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen has claimed Mr Trump knew beforehand about a leak of hacked Democratic emails.

In congressional testimony, Cohen also said Mr Trump directed plans for a Moscow skyscraper even during his White House campaign.

In a blistering opening statement, Cohen branded Mr Trump a “racist”, a “conman” and a “cheat”.

Mr Trump hit back: “He is lying in order to reduce his prison time.”

The US president took time out from preparing to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Wednesday to lash out in a tweet at his former fixer.

Cohen, 52, will start a three-year prison term in May for the campaign finance violation of paying hush money to one of Mr Trump’s alleged mistresses, tax evasion and lying to Congress.

What did Cohen say about the email leak?

In his public testimony to the House of Representatives Oversight Committee on Wednesday, Cohen said he was in Mr Trump’s office in July 2016 when Roger Stone, a longtime political adviser, called the then-Republican presidential candidate.

Cohen said Mr Stone told Mr Trump he had been speaking to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who told him there would be a leak of emails within a couple of days that would politically embarrass Hillary Clinton’s White House campaign.

Mr Trump has denied having prior knowledge of Wikileaks’ disclosure of Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails during the election.

The messages caused a damaging rift in the party by exposing Democratic officials’ favouritism towards Mrs Clinton over her challenger for the presidential nomination, Bernie Sanders.

Mr Stone, a self-proclaimed political dirty trickster, is currently facing charges of lying to Congress about his communications with Wikileaks and witness tampering.