Ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen to comply with Senate subpoena

A Senate committee has subpoenaed President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, his attorney has said, and Cohen intends to comply with the interview demand related to the Russia investigation.

The development 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 on Thursday, and later told The Associated Press in a text message that "we will comply and hope to agree upon reasonable terms, ground rules and a date". Cohen is set to begin a three-year prison sentence in March.

The Senate committee did not immediately confirm the subpoena, but any interview with Cohen would almost certainly take place in private, in keeping with how the committee generally has conducts Russia-related hearings.

Cohen earlier this week delayed his February 7 appearance before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on the advice of his legal team, citing ongoing cooperation in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation and threats against his family.

Trump, along with his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, has publicly urged the Justice Department to investigate Cohen's father-in-law, insinuating that Cohen's relative was part of some unspecific criminal activity.

"If he wants to criticize Cohen, he can," Davis said. "Obviously, picking on his family publicly is a way of silencing him or intimidating him. And certainly he has engendered great fear in his extended family, which is why we postponed it."