The Kremlin had indicated early Thursday Trump would meet with Putin on the sidelines of the G20.
Soon after speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said on Twitter he would not meet Putin separately at the summit, citing Russia's seizure of Ukrainian vessels on Nov. 25.
In a statement, Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Cohen had made contact with the administration about a Trump building project but was told in response, "we have nothing to do with construction issues in the city of Moscow."

Peskov downplayed the Cohen request as one of dozens of emails from around the world we receive every week."

The statement marked a shift compared to what Peskov said in August 2017, in which he indicated the message was unreturned.

"Because we do not react to such [questions about] business themes, and this is not our job, we left this matter without a response," Peskov said then.
Cohen's prosecution in New York arose from the work of Robert Mueller, who as special counsel was given the job of probing "any links and/or co-ordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump; and any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation."

One of the prosecutors working with Mueller was in the courtroom Thursday.

Before Cohen's appearance Thursday, Trump continued his verbal attacks on the legitimacy of Mueller's investigation on social media, calling it a Joseph McCarthy-style witch hunt," in reference to the senator who rooted out Communists in the 1950s.

Democrats want to protect Mueller

On Capitol Hill, Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia called it "remarkable that you had the president's personal lawyer still dealing on a Trump Tower project through the whole [presidential] campaign."

Cohen is among a number of people in Trump's orbit who have pleaded guilty to criminal charges. The list also includes his former presidential campaign chair, Paul Manafort, and Manafort's colleague, Rick Gates, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, who began serving a short prison sentence this week.

"There seems to be a trend here amongst so many of the president's closest allies, that they don't tell the truth, although we've also got a White House that seems on a daily basis not to have its facts straight," said Warner, a member of the Senate intelligence committee.
Warner stressed that the Mueller investigation must be allowed to proceed to its completion and strongly suggested that Matthew Whitaker, the interim attorney general who was accused of having prejudged the Mueller probe, should recuse himself from any Russia inquiries.

So far, Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has resisted calls from colleagues to use legislation to theoretically protect Mueller from firing.

"This is a solution in search of a problem," McConnell said on Tuesday. "The president is not going to fire Robert Mueller."

Earlier plea involved payments to women

Cohen pleaded guilty in August to eight separate charges, including campaign finance violations that he said he carried out in co-ordination with Trump.

At that time, Cohen said he secretly used shell companies to make payments used to silence former Playboy model Karen McDougal and adult-film actress Stormy Daniels for the purpose of influencing the 2016 election. The women have claimed they had affairs with Trump after the real estate mogul married his third wife, Melania.

Trump has insisted he only found out about the payments after they were made, despite the release of a September 2016 recorded conversation in which Trump and Cohen can be heard discussing a deal to pay McDougal for her story of a 2006 affair.

He derided Cohen at that time for co-operating with prosecutors and turning state's evidence, which is a staple of the criminal justice system.

"It's called flipping and it almost should be illegal," Trump said. "In all fairness to him, most people are going to do that."

The president, in a Fox & Friends interview, downplayed his involvement with Cohen, who worked for him for a decade, saying he was just a "part-time attorney" who had many other clients.
On Thursday, he was asked why he retained Cohen for so long.

"Because a long time ago he did me a favour," Trump said, without offering specifics.

While Trump has mused about not being opposed to offering a presidential pardon to Manafort, Cohen's prosecution at the state level would make him ineligible for a pardon.



The latest development comes with the Democrats set to take control of the House in January. The party's leadership has promised to vigorously pursue areas of investigation into Trump's finances and Trump team contacts with foreign actors, having accused the Republicans of choosing party loyalty over proper oversight the past two years.

Reacting to the plea to the new charges, outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, said Cohen "should be prosecuted to the extent of the law. That's why we put people under oath."

Back in Manhattan, Cohen's lawyer, Guy Petrillo, noted that a letter from federal prosecutors showed that Cohen's co-operation with Mueller will be described to Cohen's sentencing judge. However, the letter makes clear that Cohen, 52, is not receiving the kind of "5K1.1" letter written on behalf of formal government co-operators.

Another Cohen lawyer, Lanny Davis, said on Twitter that Cohen "told the truth and nothing but the truth."