House intel subpoenas Trump's personal attorney

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Michael Cohen: When Trump has a goal, nothing will stop him

Attorney for the Trump Organization reacts to the Republican nominee's RNC speech

A House intelligence committee staffer said the panel has issued a subpoena to President Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, as part of its ongoing investigation into Russia's election meddling, Fox News confirmed.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal committee matters.

Cohen is a former Trump Organization executive who served as a cable television surrogate for the Republican during the presidential campaign.

He told ABC News that he has been asked by both the House and Senate intelligence committees to provide information and testimony about contacts he had with Russian officials. Cohen told ABC he turned down the invitations.

In February, The New York Times reported that Cohen helped to broker a Ukraine peace plan that would call for Russian troops to withdraw from Ukraine and a referendum to let Ukrainians decide whether the part of the country seized by Russian in 2014 should be leased to Moscow. The Russian government denied knowing anything about such a plan.

The Times reported that the peace plan was the work of Felix Sater, a business associate who has helped Trump try to find business in Russia, and Cohen.

Cohen was a fierce defender of Trump during the campaign, often haranguing probing reporters and famously challenging a CNN reporter live on-air to name the specific polls that showed then-candidate Trump behind his rival, Hillary Clinton.

In the early 2000s, he formed his own firm working on a range of legal matters, including malpractice cases, business law and work on an ethanol business in Ukraine. Cohen also owned and operated a handful of taxi medallions, managing a fleet of cabs in New York.

Cohen's business associates in the taxi enterprise included a number of men from the former Soviet Union, including his Ukrainian-born father-in-law.

Cohen has made his own unsuccessful attempts at public office, losing a city council race and briefly running for state assembly in New York.

Fox News' John Roberts, Serafin Gomez and The Associated Press contributed to this report.