FILE - In this Aug. 21, 2018, file photo, Michael Cohen leaves Federal court, in New York. Cohen, President Trump's ex-lawyer, is making an court appearance before a federal judge in New York on Thursday, Nov. 29. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

WASHINGTON | President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, has agreed to testify publicly before Congress next month.

Cohen’s testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Committee will be the first significant public hearing for Democrats, who have vowed greater scrutiny of Trump.

Cohen is a central figure in probes by special counsel Robert Mueller into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, and by federal prosecutors in New York into campaign finance violations related to hush-money payments to two women who say they had sex with Trump. Trump has denied it.

Cohen has pleaded guilty in both investigations and was sentenced last month to three years in prison.

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