The Democratic Chairmen of two House committees pledged on Friday to investigate a report that President Donald Trump directed his personal attorney to lie to Congress about negotiations over a real estate project in Moscow during the 2016 election.
The Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, said directing a subordinate to lie to Congress is a federal crime.
“The House Judiciary Committee’s job is to get to the bottom of it, and we will do that work,” Mr. Nadler tweeted.
The report by BuzzFeed News, citing two unnamed law enforcement officials, says that Mr. Trump directed Mr. Cohen to lie to Congress and that Mr. Cohen regularly briefed Mr. Trump and his family on the Moscow project even as Mr. Trump said he had no business dealings with Russia.
An adviser to Mr. Cohen, Lanny Davis, declined to comment on the substance of the article, saying that he and Mr. Cohen wouldn’t answer questions out of respect for special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.
Mr. Mueller is investigating Russia meddling in the election and contacts with the Mr. Trump campaign. The BuzzFeed story said that Mr. Cohen told Mr. Mueller that Mr. Trump personally instructed him to lie about the timing of the project in order to obscure Mr. Trump’s involvement.
