Michael Cohen laid into his former boss under oath, calling him a "racist, a conman and a cheat".
Donald Trump's ex-lawyer has attacked the US president in an explosive address to Congress, saying the leader acted like a "mobster" in the run-up to his testimony.
Michael Cohen, who previously had the nickname 'pitbull' because he was known as Mr Trump's fixer and attack dog, laid into his former boss under oath, calling him a "racist, a conman and a cheat".
Speaking to the House of Representatives' oversight committee, Mr Cohen said he had lied to Congress in 2017 about a possible Trump apartment block deal in Moscow because "he [Trump] wanted me to lie".
Cohen, 52, said Mr Trump did not explicitly direct him to lie but looked him "in the eye" and relayed the false version of events.
"In his way, he was telling me to lie," Cohen said, adding that Mr Trump's personal lawyers "reviewed and edited my statement to Congress".
Cohen said he falsely claimed to the senate intelligence committee in 2017 that a proposal for a Trump Tower in the Russian capital had been abandoned in January 2016. The lawyer has since said he continued pursuing the project for Mr Trump until June 2016.
He said: "Mr Trump knew of and directed the Trump Moscow negotiations throughout the campaign and lied about it. He lied about it because he never expected to win the election.
"He also lied about it because he stood to make hundreds of millions of dollars on the Moscow real estate project."
Cohen said he does not have direct evidence that Mr Trump colluded with the Russian government during the presidential election, but that he has "suspicions".
He said by agreeing to give a testimony before the committee he had become the "target of personal, scurrilous attacks by the president and his lawyer - trying to intimidate me from appearing".
He added: "Mr Trump called me a 'rat' for choosing to tell the truth - much like a mobster would do when one of his men decides to co-operate with the government."
Cohen also claimed Mr Trump knew in advance that WikiLeaks planned to release hacked emails damaging to presidential rival Hillary Clinton.
Cohen said he was in Mr Trump's office in July 2016 when long-time adviser Roger Stone phoned Mr Trump.
According to Cohen, Mr Trump put Mr Stone on speakerphone and was told by him that he had communicated with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that "within a couple of days, there would be a massive dump of emails that would damage Hillary Clinton's campaign".
Mr Trump responded by saying "wouldn't that be great," according to Cohen.
That month, WikiLeaks released thousands of emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee's server.
During his testimony, Cohen described Mr Trump as a "conman".
Cohen said the president called him in February 2018 and asked him to mislead the public about hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels, with whom Mr Trump allegedly had had an affair.
Cohen claimed Mr Trump asked him to say the president "wasn't knowledgeable" about the payments
However, he insisted Mr Trump had directed and co-ordinated the payments.
Cohen presented to the committee a copy of a $35,000 cheque he claimed Mr Trump wrote to him to reimburse him for hush money to Daniels.
Cohen claimed Mr Trump had asked him to lie to his wife Melania about the alleged affair.
"Other cheques to reimburse me for the hush money payments were signed by [Mr Trump's eldest son] Don Jr and [Trump Organisation chief financial officer] Allen Weisselberg," he said.
Cohen said Mr Trump directed him to make a $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels days before the election to cover up what she has called a sexual encounter with Mr Trump.
The president has denied the relationship and said the payment was made to stop her "false and extortionist accusations".
Cohen pleaded guilty in August to campaign finance violations relating to arranging payments to Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, and to former Playboy model Karen McDougal, to maintain silence about their alleged affairs with Mr Trump ahead of the election.
He faces three years in jail following the ongoing investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Elaborating on his claim that Mr Trump is racist, Cohen told the Congress hearing: "While we were once driving through a struggling neighbourhood in Chicago, he [Trump] commented only black people could live that way.
"And, he told me that black people would never vote for him because they were too stupid."
Cohen added that the president was a "cheat" because he exaggerated his wealth to make the Forbes rich list and then underplayed his assets to cut his tax liability.
Cohen also told the committee Mr Trump ordered him to make threats on his behalf about 500 times over the last 10 years.
He added that he was aware of other possible illegal acts involving Mr Trump that he could not discuss because they were under investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.
Reacting to the testimony, Mr Trump's press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said: "Michael Cohen is a felon, a disbarred lawyer, and a convicted perjurer, who lied to both Congress and the special counsel in a 'deliberate and premeditated' fashion according to the special counsel's office."
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