NEW YORK: President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty on Thursday to lying to Congress over the ongoing Russia investigation in connection with a Moscow real-estate deal and Russian contacts pursued during the 2016 election.

The 52-year-old, for years one of the Republican billionaire’s closest aides, admitted one count of making false statements relating to a real-estate deal at the roughly hour-long hearing, an official confirmed.

The Trump Tower deal — which never got off the ground — has been a focus of an investigation into whether the Trump campaign conspired with Russian operatives during the 2016 campaign, The New York Times reported.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2018