VietPress USA (Jan. 23, 2019): Michael Dean Cohen was longtime personal lawyer  for Donald Trump from 2006 until May 2018.

Cohen was a vice-president of The Trump Organization and a counsel to Trump, often being described by the press as Trump's "fixer" He previously served as co-president of Trump Entertainment and was a board member of the Eric Trump Foundation, a children's health charity. From 2017 to 2018, Cohen was deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Trump employed him until May 2018, a month after a federal investigation began. The investigation led to him pleading guilty on August 21, 2018, to eight counts of campaign finance violations, tax fraud, and bank fraud. Cohen said he violated campaign finance laws at the direction of Trump and "for the principal purpose of influencing" the 2016 presidential election. In November 2018, Cohen made a second guilty plea for lying to a Senate committee about efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. In December 2018, he was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine.

On Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019, when President Donald Trump visited the southern border, Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland announced that Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer, has accepted an invitation to testify in an open session before Congress next month on February 7th, 2019 before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.

Mr Cohen has receieved "ongoing threats against his family from Trump" and the president's current attorney, Rudy Giuliani, after pleading guilty to crimes he committed while working on the 2016 election campaign, attorney Lanny Davis said in a statement. 

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Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, is postponing his testimony to the US Congress because of threats against his family from Trump, his adviser has announced.

Mr Cohen has receieved "ongoing threats against his family from Trump" and the president's current attorney, Rudy Giuliani, after pleading guilty to crimes he committed while working on the 2016 election campaign, attorney Lanny Davis said in a statement. 

He was initially scheduled to provide his testimony before the House Oversight Committee at the invitation of Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings, the chairman of the committee, on 7 February.

"Due to ongoing threats against his family from President Trump and Mr Giuliani, as recently as this weekend, as well as Mr Cohen's continued cooperation with ongoing investigations, by advice of counsel, Mr. Cohen's appearance will be postponed to a later date," Mr Davis said. "Mr. Cohen wishes to thank Chairman Cummings for allowing him to appear before the House Oversight Committee and looks forward to testifying at the appropriate time."

"This is a time where Mr Cohen had to put his family and their safety first," Mr Davis added.

Mr Trump branded his former fixer a "rat" in a tweet last month, as well as suggesting he had damaging information on Cohen's father-in-law. "That's the one that people want to look at," Trump said in an interview with Fox News.

During an event at the White House, the president was asked by a reporter about Cohen saying he had been threatened by Trump and Giuliani.

"I would say he's been threatened by the truth. He's only been threatened by the truth. And he doesn't want to do that probably for me or other of his clients," Mr Trump said. "He has other clients also, I assume, and he doesn't want to tell the truth for me or other of his clients."

Meanwhile Mr Giuliani told Reuters that the "president's response covers it."

Cohen is expected to report to prison on March 6 for his three-year sentence. 

Additional reporting by agencies

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