--- title: Trump Says Michael Cohen's Testimony Was '95% Lies' description: The President, who is leaving Vietnam with no deal with North Korea, derided the timing of Cohen's testimony and denied his allegations. canonical: https://time.com/5540817/donald-trump-reaction-michael-cohen-testimony/ author: Amy Gunia article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-02-28T10:54:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T00:44:00.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Dismisses Michael Cohen's Testimony as '95% Lies' og:description: The U.S. President says that Cohen lied about everything but Russian collusion. og:url: https://time.com/5540817/donald-trump-reaction-michael-cohen-testimony/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd7e23376c1312343/698946048fd2eedcf835de0e/gettyimages-1128022249.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: VIETNAM-US-NKOREA-DIPLOMACY-SUMMIT og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Dismisses Michael Cohen's Testimony as '95% Lies' twitter:description: The U.S. President says that Cohen lied about everything but Russian collusion. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd7e23376c1312343/698946048fd2eedcf835de0e/gettyimages-1128022249.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Dismisses Michael Cohen's Testimony as '95% Lies' During Post-Summit Press Conference > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=0286d38e-3bf6-44f6-8fc9-299d7b0419c9&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Trump Dismisses Cohen's Testimony as 95% Lies During Summit with Kim [Watch (HLS stream): Trump Dismisses Cohen's Testimony as 95% Lies During Summit with Kim](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/19jEGZjW.m3u8) (1:51)  _Published 2019-02-28. President Trump condemned the “fake hearing” at which his former lawyer Michael Cohen testified to Congress as “95 percent” lies, at a press conference to mark the end of his summit in Hanoi on Thursday._ by [Amy Gunia](https://time.com/author/amy-gunia/) ## Amy Gunia Gunia was a reporter for TIME based in Hong Kong. Updated: Dec 13, 2023 12:44 AM UTCPublished: Feb 28, 2019 10:54 AM UTC President Trump condemned the “fake hearing” at which his former lawyer Michael Cohen testified to Congress as “95 percent” lies, at a press conference to mark the end of his summit in Hanoi on Thursday. by [Amy Gunia](https://time.com/author/amy-gunia/) ## Amy Gunia Gunia was a reporter for TIME based in Hong Kong. Updated: Dec 13, 2023 12:44 AM UTCPublished: Feb 28, 2019 10:54 AM UTC President Trump condemned the “fake hearing” at which his former lawyer Michael Cohen testified to Congress as “95 percent” lies, at a [press conference](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IooVNUhvvTw) to mark the end of his summit in Hanoi on Thursday. “He lied a lot,” Trump told reporters in Vietnam. He said there was only one moment when he told the truth, on the question of whether Trump had colluded with the Russians to win the 2016 election. “He said no collusion with the Russian hoax…I was actually impressed that he didn’t say well I think there was collusion,'” Trump said. “He only went about 95 percent instead of 100 percent.” Cohen, who worked for Trump from 2006 to 2018, presented a damning [character assassination](http://time.com/5540665/michael-cohen-testimony-threats/) of the president in his testimony to the House Oversight and Reform Committee in Washington DC on Wednesday. His former boss, he said, was a “racist,” “a con man” and “a cheat.” The lawyer also testified that the president had repaid him with a personally-signed check for hush money he gave to porn star Stormy Daniels after their extramarital affair. He also said Trump had known in advance about the Trump Tower meeting with Russian lobbyists during the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump, who is leaving Vietnam with [no deal](http://time.com/5540780/donald-trump-kim-jong-un-north-korea-summit-no-deal/) with North Korea, also unleashed on Cohen on his [Twitter account](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1100683974899363840) early Thursday. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1100683974899363840) “Michael Cohen was one of many lawyers who represented me (unfortunately). He had other clients also. He was just disbarred by the State Supreme Court for lying & fraud. He did bad things unrelated to Trump. He is lying in order to reduce his prison time. Using Crooked’s lawyer!” In Vietnam, Trump also criticized the timing of the hearing. “Having a fake hearing like that and having it during the middle of this very important summit is really a terrible thing, they could have made it two days later or next week,” he said about the date of the hearing, which was held the day before his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. While Trump was in Hanoi, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. launched a [Twitter defense campaign](http://time.com/5540195/donald-trump-jr-eric-michael-cohen-twitter/) on behalf of their father. Trump said that he had not been able to reach a deal because North Korea wanted him to agree to remove all sanctions on the country, which he is not willing to do without more progress on denuclearization. ## Transcript [00:00] This was going on in the drama back in Washington. Your [00:03] former lawyer Michael Cohen, who worked for you for 10 [00:05] years, his office right next to yours. Yeah. Right by yours at [00:09] Trump Tower. He called you a liar, a con man, a racist. [00:14] What's you response to Michael Cohen? [00:24] But I think having a fake hearing like [00:28] that, and having it in the middle of this very important [00:32] summit is really a terrible thing. They could have made it [00:36] two days later or next week. And it would have been even [00:40] better, they would had more time. But having it during this [00:43] very important summit is Sort of incredible. And lied a [00:47] lot, but it was very interesting because he didn't lie about [00:51] one thing. He said no collusion with the Russian hoax. And [00:55] I said, I wonder why he didn't just lie about that too like he [00:57] did about everything else. I mean, he lied about so many [01:00] different things and I was actually impressed that he didn't [01:03] say well, I think there was collusion for this reason or that. [01:06] He didn't say that, he said no collusion and I was you [01:10] know a little impressed by that frankly. He could have gone [01:14] all out, he only went about 95 % instead of 100 %. But [01:18] the fact is there is no collusion, and I call it the witch hunt. [01:21] This should never happen to another president. This is so [01:23] bad for our country. So bad. You look at this whole [01:29] hoax, I call it the Russian witch hunt and now add the [01:33] word hoax, it's a very very bad thing thing for our country. [01:36] But I was impressed with the fact that he, most [01:42] important question up there was The one on collusion and [01:45] he said he saw no collusion. So we'll see what happens [01:49] but it was pretty shameful I think. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5540817/donald-trump-reaction-michael-cohen-testimony/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5540817/donald-trump-reaction-michael-cohen-testimony/"},"headline":"President Trump Dismisses Michael Cohen's Testimony as '95% Lies' During Post-Summit Press Conference","datePublished":"2019-02-28T10:54:27.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T00:44:00.000Z","description":"The President, who is leaving Vietnam with no deal with North Korea, derided the timing of Cohen's testimony and denied his allegations.","url":"https://time.com/5540817/donald-trump-reaction-michael-cohen-testimony/","keywords":["White House","politics","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd7e23376c1312343/698946048fd2eedcf835de0e/gettyimages-1128022249.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Amy Gunia","jobTitle":"Gunia was a reporter for TIME based in Hong Kong.","url":"https://time.com/author/amy-gunia/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd7e23376c1312343/698946048fd2eedcf835de0e/gettyimages-1128022249.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"VIETNAM-US-NKOREA-DIPLOMACY-SUMMIT","caption":"VIETNAM-US-NKOREA-DIPLOMACY-SUMMIT","creditText":"Saul Loeb—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5540817/donald-trump-reaction-michael-cohen-testimony/","name":"President Trump Dismisses Michael Cohen's Testimony as '95% Lies' During Post-Summit Press Conference"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Trump Dismisses Cohen's Testimony as 95% Lies During Summit with Kim","description":"President Trump condemned the “fake hearing” at which his former lawyer Michael Cohen testified to Congress as “95 percent” lies, at a press conference to mark the end of his summit in Hanoi on Thursday.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/19jEGZjW/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2019-02-28T08:17:43.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/19jEGZjW.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5540817/donald-trump-reaction-michael-cohen-testimony/","duration":"PT1M51S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5540817/donald-trump-reaction-michael-cohen-testimony/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```