Michael Cohen says Trump would 'do what is necessary' to win the presidency, including potentially colluding with a foreign power

Craig Ruttle/Associated Press

Michael Cohen, former personal lawyer to President Donald Trump, leaves federal court after reaching a plea agreement in New York on Aug. 21, 2018.

• Michael Cohen told Congress on Wednesday that he believes President Donald Trump would have been willing to collude with a foreign power to win the presidency.
• "Mr. Trump is all about winning. He will do what is necessary," Cohen said. 
• Follow along with our live blog of the hearing here.

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's longtime former lawyer and fixer, told the House Oversight Committee during his Wednesday morning testimony that he believes Trump would have been willing to collude with a foreign power to win the presidency. 

Cohen told Congress that Trump knew the GOP strategist Roger Stone was in touch with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange about WikiLeaks' plan to dump thousands of Democratic National Committee emails that were hacked by Russian operatives.

"Knowing how Mr. Trump operates with his winning at all costs mentality, do you believe that he would cooperate or collude with a foreign power to win the presidency? Is he capable of that?" Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz asked Cohen during the hearing. 

"Mr. Trump is all about winning. He will do what is necessary," Cohen said. 

Wasserman-Schultz pressed Cohen. She went on, "In your opinion and experience, would he have the potential to cooperate or collude with a foreign power to win the presidency at all costs?" 

"Yes," Cohen replied. 

Cohen then went on to say that he has no proof that Trump colluded with Russia or any other foreign power, in part because he wasn't part of the Trump campaign.

The congresswoman concluded by asking Cohen whether Trump "was fully aware and had every intent of working with Russia to help make sure that he could win the presidency at all costs?"

"I would rather not answer that specific question other than just the tell you that Mr. Trump's desire to win would have him work with anyone," Cohen replied. "When it came to the Trump Tower Moscow project, it was worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and we never expected to win the election. So this was just business as usual."

Sonam Sheth contributed to this report. 

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