Former Trump lawyer reconsidering plan to testify to Congress: adviser

Reuters
FILE PHOTO: Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump's former personal attorney, exits the U.S. Courthouse in New York after sentencing, December 12, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen is reconsidering his plan to testify publicly to Congress next month out of fear for his family, an adviser to Cohen said on Thursday. "There is genuine fear and it has caused Michael Cohen to consider whether he should go forward or not, and he has not made a final decision," Lanny Davis, an attorney who has been advising Cohen on his media strategy, told MSNBC. Last week Cohen agreed to appear before a congressional panel on Feb. 7, as U.S. House of Representatives Democrats began kicking off numerous investigations of Trump, his business interests and his administration. Cohen was sentenced in December to three years in prison for his role in making illegal hush-money payments to two women to help Trump in 2016 in violation of campaign laws, and for lying to Congress about a proposed Trump Tower project in Russia. (Reporting by Tim Ahmann; editing by Leslie Adler and James Dalgleish)