Mr Cohen admitted misleading lawmakers about talks over a Trump property deal in Moscow during the presidential race.
Mr Trump said his former right-hand man was “lying” to seek a reduced sentence BBC reported.
In August, Mr Cohen pleaded guilty to violating finance laws during the 2016 presidential election by handling hush money for Mr Trump’s alleged lovers.
Thursday’s hearing was the latest twist in the US Department of Justice special counsel’s investigation into whether Mr Trump or his inner circle colluded with a Russian attempt to influence the 2016 presidential election.
As he left the White House for a G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Mr Trump told reporters of Mr Cohen: “He’s a weak person and not a very smart person.
“He’s got himself a big prison sentence. And he’s trying to get a much lesser prison sentence by making up this story.”
Mr Trump told reporters of the Moscow real estate project, which never came to fruition: “When I’m running for president that doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to do business.”
He added: “He’s lying about a project that everybody knew about. I mean, we were very open with it.”
Appearing unexpectedly before a federal judge in Manhattan on Thursday morning, Mr Cohen, 52, pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements to Congress.
He said at the hearing that he had submitted a false written statement about a Trump Organization plan to build a skyscraper bearing Mr Trump’s name in the Russian capital.
“I made these misstatements to be consistent with individual 1’s political messaging and out of loyalty to individual 1,” Mr Cohen said in court, according to Reuters news agency.
He has previously identified “individual 1” as Mr Trump.
Mr Cohen was interviewed in October last year behind closed doors by lawmakers conducting their own investigation into whether Mr Trump’s campaign worked with Russia to sway the US election two years ago.
According to the criminal complaint, he told the Senate and House intelligence committees that talks over the Moscow project had lasted from September 2015 until January 2016, while Mr Trump was campaigning for US president.
But the criminal complaint says that “as Cohen well knew” negotiations over the Moscow project continued until June 2016.
Mr Cohen also told lawmakers he had had limited contact with Mr Trump about the project, when in fact it had been “more extensive”.
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