Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former fixer and personal lawyer, returns to Capitol Hill Wednesday for public testimony before the House Oversight Committee in what is expected to be a compelling appearance.
Cohen will allege — amid a stream of potentially damaging revelations about the president — that Trump knew in advance that the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks planned to publish hacked Democratic National Committee emails, and he will describe the president as a “racist,” a “conman,” and a “cheat,” according to a copy of his written testimony.
The testimony was first obtained by Politico and confirmed as authentic to the Washington Post by a person familiar with it.
The WikiLeaks allegation is perhaps the most explosive in the written testimony, speaking to the core of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to influence the election. Mueller already has alleged that Russian military officials hacked the emails before they were published online by groups including WikiLeaks.
According to the prepared testimony, Cohen will say he listened in as Trump confidante Roger Stone told the then-presidential candidate in July 2016, days before the Democratic convention, that “he had just gotten off the phone with [WikiLeaks founder] Julian Assange and that Mr. Assange told Mr. Stone that, within a couple of days, there would be a massive dump of emails that would damage Hillary Clinton’s campaign.” It was in those days that WikiLeaks released a batch of DNC emails. Trump has previously denied talking about WikiLeaks with Stone.
Cohen is also expected to provide evidence of how Trump, as president, personally signed a check reimbursing his then-lawyer for money Cohen paid a woman to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Trump. Cohen already has admitted that the payment, which he made at Trump’s direction as the presidential campaign was nearing its end, violated campaign finance laws, and his supporters believe the check is evidence that the criminal scheme extended into Trump’s time in office.
Rudolph W. Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, wrote in a text message to the Washington Post responding to Cohen’s prepared testimony: “It’s pathetic … If you believe him you are a fool.” Trump tweeted early Wednesday: “Michael Cohen was one of many lawyers who represented me (unfortunately). He had other clients also. He was just disbarred by the State Supreme Court for lying & fraud. He did bad things unrelated to Trump. He is lying in order to reduce his prison time. Using Crooked’s lawyer!” He did not respond to a shouted question as he began his meeting in Vietnam with North Korean leader Kimg Jong Un.
Follow along with our live coverage here throughout the day. The hearing begins at 10 a.m.
8:00 a.m.: Cohen alleges Trump knew in advance of WikiLeaks email dump
Potentially the most explosive allegation that Cohen is expected to make is that Trump knew in advance of WikiLeaks’ July 2016 release of DNC emails. According to Cohen’s written testimony, he will say he was in Trump’s office that month when Trump’s secretary put Stone on the line, and Stone described what was about to happen.
“Mr. Trump responded by stating to the effect of ‘wouldn’t that be great,’” Cohen will say, according to his written remarks.
Mueller has investigated extensively Stone’s dealings, or attempted dealings, with WikiLeaks, and at Cohen’s sentencing hearing, Jeannie Rhee, part of Mueller’s prosecution team, told the judge that Cohen had provided “credible and reliable information about core Russia-related issues under investigation.” The revelation Wednesday may offer a glimpse into what he might have shared with the special counsel.
While Mueller’s prosecutors have charged Stone with lying to Congress about his efforts to reach WikiLeaks, they have not alleged he criminally conspired with the group or with Russia to influence the outcome of the election.
In June 2016, Assange had talked publicly about having acquired damaging information on Clinton.
WikiLeaks and Assange have said they never communicated with Stone, though during the campaign, Stone privately told associates that he was in contact with Assange, and that WikiLeaks had material that would be damaging to Clinton. In August 2016, he also boasted publicly of having communicated with Assange and — perhaps most notably — tweeted on Aug 21 — “Trust me, it will soon the Podesta’s time in the barrel.” Six weeks later, WikiLeaks began posting another set of stolen emails from the account of Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta.
A person familiar with Cohen’s testimony said Cohen does not have evidence, such as contemporaneous memos, to support the assertion he will make about the phone call between Stone and Trump.
In response to the testimony, Wikileaks tweeted that the group “had already publicly announced its pending publications and has always denied speaking to Roger Stone.”
7:45 a.m. A check signed by Trump, and another signed by his son
People familiar with Cohen’s testimony had in recent days touted that he would release evidence connecting Trump to possible criminal conduct while in office. His written testimony makes clear what that evidence is.
Cohen will provide a copy of a $35,000 check that he says was personally signed by Trump in August 1, 2017, to reimburse him for paying off Stormy Daniels, an adult-film actress who had alleged having an affair with Trump. Cohen has admitted that — at Trump’s direction — he paid the woman $130,000 in the waning days of the campaign so she would keep quiet about the affair, which violated campaign finance laws.
According to his written testimony, Cohen will effectively use the check to allege that the criminal wrongdoing in which he has implicated the president continued even after Trump took office.
“I am providing a copy of a $35,000 check that President Trump personally signed from his personal bank account on August 1, 2017–when he was President of the United States – pursuant to the cover-up, which was the basis of my guilty plea, to reimburse me – the word used by Mr. Trump’s TV lawyer –for the illegal hush money I paid on his behalf. This $35,000 check was one of 11 check installments that was paid throughout the year –while he was President,” Cohen will say, according to his written remarks.
Cohen will also display a second $35,000 check, dated March 17, 2017, this one signed by Trump Jr. and Trump organization chief operating officer Allen Weisselberg, a person familiar with his testimony said. The check offers the first evidence that the president’s son may also have been involved with the reimbursement scheme.
Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer, has previously acknowledged Trump reimbursed Cohen for the payments, though he has disputed the president violated campaign finance laws. He has also said, though, that he did not know when the president learned the nature of the payment to Daniels, and he only learned the full details after law enforcement raided Cohen’s home in April.
While it already had been clear that Cohen was implicating Trump in the campaign finance violations to which he pleaded guilty, his assertion that Trump was involved in a “cover-up” while president — backed by a check with Trump’s writing on it — will be notable. Cohen will also allege that in February 2017, one month into his presidency, Trump assured him in the Oval Office that the reimbursement checks were on their way.
[The details of what Michael Cohen has admitted previously about the hush money payments]
7:30 a.m.: ‘He is a racist, he is a conman, he is a cheat’
One of the notable aspects of Cohen’s testimony is the extent to which he will air what he says are the president’s personal and moral failings. According to his written remarks, he will call the president a “racist,” a “conman” and a “cheat,” and describe personal anecdotes to back up his assertions.
“While we were once driving through a struggling neighborhood in Chicago, he commented that only black people could live that way,” Cohen will say, according to his written testimony. “And, he told me that black people would never vote for him because they were too stupid.”
Cohen already had detailed those anecdotes in an interview with Vanity Fair in November, though his describing them again in a public setting could be politically damaging for the president. He will also allege other, petty actions he says the president took, including directing him “to threaten his high school, his colleges, and the College Board to never release his grades or SAT scores.”
7:15 a.m.: On the eve of the hearing, a personal attack
In a sign of just how nasty the hearing will become, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) tweeted a lurid attack on Cohen Tuesday alleging — without providing evidence — he had affairs.
“Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I wonder if she’ll remain faithful when you’re in prison. She’s about to learn a lot…” Gaetz tweeted.
Trump and his defenders have relentlessly attacked Cohen ever since he agreed to plead guilty and cooperate with law enforcement, with the president even suggesting that Cohen’s own father-in-law should be investigated. But even in that context, Gaetz’s tweet was remarkably personal, foreshadowing what is likely be several days of blistering attacks on Cohen’s credibility. Before the night was out, he would apologize in a second tweet.
“While it is important 2 create context around the testimony of liars like Michael Cohen, it was NOT my intent to threaten, as some believe I did. I’m deleting the tweet & I should have chosen words that better showed my intent. I’m sorry,’ he wrote.
Lanny J. Davis, an attorney for Cohen, said of Gaetz’s comment: “We will not respond to Mr. Gaetz’s despicable lies and personal smears, except to say we trust that his colleagues in the House, both Republicans and Democrats, will repudiate his words and his conduct. I also trust that his constituents will not appreciate that their congressman has set a new low — which in today’s political culture is hard to imagine as possible.”
Earlier in the day, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had said in a statement, “Disgraced felon Michael Cohen is going to prison for lying to Congress and making other false statements. Sadly, he will go before Congress this week and we can expect more of the same. It’s laughable that anyone would take a convicted liar like Cohen at his word, and pathetic to see him given yet another opportunity to spread his lies.”
7:00 a.m.: What will Cohen say about the controversial BuzzFeed story?
Last month, BuzzFeed News leveled the explosive allegation that Cohen had claimed the president directed him to lie to Congress about a possible Trump Tower project in Moscow, and that he had told the special counsel as much. The special counsel’s office soon disputed that report. But Cohen had never addressed it publicly — until now.
According to his written testimony, Cohen will tell lawmakers, “Mr. Trump did not directly tell me to lie to Congress. That’s not how he operates.” That would seem to refute BuzzFeed’s report, which alleged “the president personally instructed him to lie — by claiming that negotiations ended months earlier than they actually did — in order to obscure Trump’s involvement.”
The testimony is not totally surprising. If Cohen said BuzzFeed was right, that would raise significant questions about the credibility of the special counsel’s office, which issued a rare public statement taking aim at the news outlet’s reporting.
Cohen will offer, according to his written testimony, that he felt Trump was sending him an implicit message he should lie — though he seemed to intuit that message from interactions he had with Trump many months before he testified, while Trump was still a candidate and the Trump Tower Moscow project was still being pursued.
“To be clear: 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. And so I lied about it, too – because Mr. Trump had made clear to me, through his personal statements to me that we both knew were false and through his lies to the country, that he wanted me to lie. And he made it clear to me because his personal attorneys reviewed my statement before I gave it to Congress.”
That should be little solace to BuzzFeed, as it was all mostly public at the time it published its story. In court documents, Cohen’s lawyers had said previously his lies “sprung regrettably from Michael’s effort, as a loyal ally and then-champion” of Trump. They also noted when he prepared his testimony, he was “in close and regular contact with White House-based staff and legal counsel” to Trump.
6:45 a.m.: Cohen will present Trump financial records
Cohen is expected to present to lawmakers some Trump financial records — including three years of financial statements, from 2011-2013, which he gave to Deutsche Bank, according to his written testimony. He will allege that Trump “inflated his total assets when it served his purposes, such as trying to be listed among the wealthiest people in Forbes, and deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes.”
That testimony could be particularly grating for the president, who has bristled in particular at the notion that his and his family’s finances might be subjected to congressional or law enforcement scrutiny.
This story was originally published by Washington Post
via USAHint.com
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