President Donald Trump's ex-lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen got some reassuring advice last April from Rudy Giuliani — that Cohen had "friends in high places" and could "sleep well tonight," CNN reported Wednesday.
Two emails – both dated April 21, 2018, and among documents provided to Congress by Cohen – do not specifically mention a pardon, CNN reported. But Cohen provided the emails in closed-door testimony to back up his claim a pardon was dangled before he decided to cooperate with federal prosecutors, CNN reported, citing unnamed sources.
"I just spoke to Rudy Giuliani and told him I was on your team," lawyer Robert Costello wrote in the first of two emails, CNN reported. "He asked me to tell you that he knows how tough this is on you and your family and he will make (sure) to tell the president. He said thank you for opening this back channel of communication and asked me to keep in touch."
In a follow-up email, Costello told Cohen he had spoken to Giuliani and told Cohen it was "very, very positive."
"There was never a doubt and they are in our corner," Costello wrote, CNN reported. "Rudy said this communication channel must be maintained. He called it crucial and noted how reassured they were that they had someone like me whom Rudy has known for so many years in this role."
"Sleep well tonight, you have friends in high places," Costello ended the email.
Costello told CNN that Cohen's interpretation of events was "utter nonsense," adding Cohen asked him to raise the issue of a pardon with Giuliani.
"The first time I kind of danced around the issue because Michael brought it up with me, and I told him, 'Look, this is way too premature. . . . But if you want me to bring it up, I will bring it up.' And I did," Costello told CNN.
Cohen's Feb. 27 testimony that he never asked for a pardon has triggered a fight over the claim.
"That was about Michael Cohen thinking that the president was mad at him," Giuliani told CNN. "I called [Costello] to reassure him that the President was not mad. It wasn't long after the raid and the president felt bad for him."
Lanny Davis, Cohen's lawyer and spokesman, told CNN he could not comment on the matter if it involved documents provided to the intelligence committees, but noted: "as a general matter from my own past experience, it is impossible to deny or try to spin your way out of what documents say."
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