Ex-Attorney Testifies Before Congress:
Damning Accusations: Trump Created a Web of Lies
WASHINGTON (Politico) — President Donald Trump’s former attorney and fixer has laid out a series of damning accusations against the president, presenting evidence of alleged lies and criminal conduct and expressing remorse over his decade of service to a man he described as unstable and racist.
Michael Cohen testified to the House Oversight Committee that Trump directed him to lie about the president’s knowledge of hush-money payments, that Trump was informed about plans to dump Democratic emails during the 2016 presidential campaign and was kept in the loop about a Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer offering dirt on Hillary Clinton.
The explosive comments from Cohen during a sharply partisan House hearing contradict Trump’s previous claims and expose Trump and some of his closest advisers to new legal and political trouble, potentially including impeachment, as Democrats used the hearing to draw out evidence of wrongdoing by the president.
Cohen sought redemption by revealing what he said is the true character of the commander in chief and apologizing to lawmakers for lying to them in previous testimony. In stunning daylong testimony, Cohen became the highest-profile witness to testify against a sitting president since former White House counsel John Dean took the stand against President Richard Nixon.
"I am ashamed because I know what Mr. Trump is,” Cohen said Wednesday in his opening statement. "He is a racist, he is a conman, and he is a cheat.”
Perhaps most important for the president’s critics, Cohen turned over a trove of documents to Congress that showed Trump’s personal net worth and Trump’s reimbursements for a hush-money payment and other pieces of evidence that could endanger the president.
One of the documents, titled "Donald J. Trump Summary of Net Worth As of March 31, 2013,” shows Trump with a net worth of approximately $8.6 billion. Cohen also provided the committee with copies of a $35,000 check signed by Trump from his personal bank account — while he was president in 2017 — as one part of a reimbursement to Cohen for the $130,000 payment to buy the silence of adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who alleges that she and Trump had an affair.
Cohen told lawmakers that the documents he provided to the House panel prove that Trump engaged in illicit acts and painted a misleading picture of his personal wealth in order to secure loans from Deutsche Bank and ensure that he would be listed on Forbes’ list of the world’s wealthiest people.
"It was my experience that Mr. 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,” Cohen said, later adding: "Everything was done with the knowledge and direction of Mr. Trump.”
Cohen — who is scheduled to report to federal prison in May after pleading guilty to lying to Congress and for campaign-finance crimes related to the hush-money payment — expressed remorse for working for more than a decade as the president’s fixer.
And he warned Republicans who continue to defend Trump that they, too, could end up like him.
Cohen told lawmakers that Trump directed him to lie about the president’s knowledge of the hush-money payments — including to first lady Melania Trump. The president has repeatedly claimed he had no knowledge of the payoff to Daniels.
Cohen implicated Trump’s family members and longtime business associates, too.
In his opening statement, Cohen charged that the president’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and longtime Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, had also signed checks reimbursing him for the hush-money payments.
He also said he briefed Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump about the progress of the Trump Organization’s efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the timing of the Trump Tower Moscow deal, and said he misled lawmakers in order to shield Trump from further legal trouble.
Michael Cohen testified to the House Oversight Committee that Trump directed him to lie about the president’s knowledge of hush-money payments, that Trump was informed about plans to dump Democratic emails during the 2016 presidential campaign and was kept in the loop about a Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer offering dirt on Hillary Clinton.
The explosive comments from Cohen during a sharply partisan House hearing contradict Trump’s previous claims and expose Trump and some of his closest advisers to new legal and political trouble, potentially including impeachment, as Democrats used the hearing to draw out evidence of wrongdoing by the president.
Cohen sought redemption by revealing what he said is the true character of the commander in chief and apologizing to lawmakers for lying to them in previous testimony. In stunning daylong testimony, Cohen became the highest-profile witness to testify against a sitting president since former White House counsel John Dean took the stand against President Richard Nixon.
"I am ashamed because I know what Mr. Trump is,” Cohen said Wednesday in his opening statement. "He is a racist, he is a conman, and he is a cheat.”
Perhaps most important for the president’s critics, Cohen turned over a trove of documents to Congress that showed Trump’s personal net worth and Trump’s reimbursements for a hush-money payment and other pieces of evidence that could endanger the president.
One of the documents, titled "Donald J. Trump Summary of Net Worth As of March 31, 2013,” shows Trump with a net worth of approximately $8.6 billion. Cohen also provided the committee with copies of a $35,000 check signed by Trump from his personal bank account — while he was president in 2017 — as one part of a reimbursement to Cohen for the $130,000 payment to buy the silence of adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who alleges that she and Trump had an affair.
Cohen told lawmakers that the documents he provided to the House panel prove that Trump engaged in illicit acts and painted a misleading picture of his personal wealth in order to secure loans from Deutsche Bank and ensure that he would be listed on Forbes’ list of the world’s wealthiest people.
"It was my experience that Mr. 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,” Cohen said, later adding: "Everything was done with the knowledge and direction of Mr. Trump.”
Cohen — who is scheduled to report to federal prison in May after pleading guilty to lying to Congress and for campaign-finance crimes related to the hush-money payment — expressed remorse for working for more than a decade as the president’s fixer.
And he warned Republicans who continue to defend Trump that they, too, could end up like him.
Cohen told lawmakers that Trump directed him to lie about the president’s knowledge of the hush-money payments — including to first lady Melania Trump. The president has repeatedly claimed he had no knowledge of the payoff to Daniels.
Cohen implicated Trump’s family members and longtime business associates, too.
In his opening statement, Cohen charged that the president’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and longtime Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, had also signed checks reimbursing him for the hush-money payments.
He also said he briefed Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump about the progress of the Trump Organization’s efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the timing of the Trump Tower Moscow deal, and said he misled lawmakers in order to shield Trump from further legal trouble.