Senate Subpoena for Ex-Trump Lawyer Cohen; Will He Comply?

Senate Subpoena for Ex-Trump Lawyer Cohen; Will He Comply?

WASHINGTON —

A Senate committee on Thursday subpoenaed President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, according to his defense team, in a Russia investigation development that comes one day after Cohen postponed his public testimony to a House committee.

Lanny Davis, a lawyer for Cohen, disclosed the subpoena from the Senate Intelligence Committee in a one-sentence statement that did not address whether Trump's onetime adviser would comply.

Cohen has delayed his Feb. 7 appearance before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on the advice of his legal team, which said Cohen is still cooperating in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Davis also said Cohen has received threats against his family.

That decision pushed back any chance of a public airing on details of Cohen's relationship with Trump, including hush money payments that Cohen has admitted arranging to two women who say they had sex with the president. Trump has denied the allegation.

The Senate committee did not immediately confirm the subpoena. It ordinarily holds its Russia-related hearings in private. It was not immediately clear what date the committee was asking him to appear on.

Cohen has pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about his role in a Trump business proposal in Moscow during the campaign, and for his involvement in payments to a former Playboy model and porn actress.

He is set to begin a three-year prison sentence in March.

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