Michael Cohen
House Oversight Committee Testimony
(February
27, 2019)
Update: Earlier post follows
this update
Lanny Davis, Michael Cohen’s current lawyer, acknowledged to the WSJ about
their article that in the period following the FBI’s raid, Cohen was
open to the possibility of a pardon, and characterized discussions between
Cohen’s attorney at the time, Stephen
Ryan, and Trump lawyers, including Rudy
Giuliani, as the “ongoing dangling of
a possible pardon by Trump representatives privately and in the media.”
So, Cohen lied to the
House Oversight Committee, right?
Not exactly, according to Davis, whom Cohen hired last summer
after Ryan and Trump’s lawyers finished reviewing the files seized by the FBI
to determine which of them were protected under attorney-client privilege.
Davis
said via Mother Jones: “After July 2, 2018, Mr. Cohen
authorized me as a new lawyer to say publicly Mr. Cohen would never accept a
pardon from President Trump even if offered. That continues to be the case. His
statement at the Oversight Hearing was true — and consistent with his
post-joint defense agreement commitment to tell the truth.”
Original post follows:
================================================
Cohen’s Oversight
Committee testimony (February 27,
2019) was stunning and filled in four essential gaps (see below) specific
individuals Cohen named are listed in this story from
Politico.
(1) Cohen said
that Trump was informed of conversations
with WikiLeaks about releasing emails related to Hillary Clinton which Trump has
denied.
(2) Cohen said that Trump was aware of a meeting at Trump Tower
between campaign officials. That includes son, Donald Jr., son-in-law
Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort – with several Russians in June 2016, which
Trump denied any knowledge of on AF-1 when reporter asked.
(3) Cohen presented a copy of a check reimbursing him
for hush money, dated August 2017 to Stormy Daniels. That check places the crime during Trump’s
presidency.
(4) Cohen he lied to Congress at Trump’s direction, although the
direction was not implicit.
Specifics about the two
very keys and most-critical:
(1) Cohen: “In
July 2016, days before the Democratic convention, I was in Mr. Trump’s office
when his secretary announced that Roger Stone was on the phone. Mr. Trump put
Mr. Stone on the speakerphone. Mr. Stone told Mr. Trump that he had just gotten off the
phone with 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. Mr. Trump responded by stating to the effect of “Wouldn’t
that be great.”
(2) Cohen: “I
remember being in the room with Mr. Trump, probably in early June 2016, when
something peculiar happened. Don Jr. came into the room and walked behind his
father’s desk, which in itself was unusual. People didn’t just walk behind Mr.
Trump’s desk to talk to him. I recalled Don Jr. leaning over to his father and
speaking in a low voice, which I could clearly hear, and saying: “The meeting
is all set.” I remember Mr. Trump saying, “Ok good … let me know.”
Cohen sums up Trump’s
character: “He is
capable of behaving kindly, but he is not kind. He is capable of committing
acts of generosity, but he is not generous. He is capable of being loyal, but
he is fundamentally disloyal.”
Chairman Cummings closing was great and 100% appropriate and correct. More from the Boston Globe (via MSN): Here is a rundown of what exactly Michael Cohen alleged in his testimony.
Cohen alleges that
Trump knew about the ongoing negotiations for a major development project in
Moscow in 2016 and lied about it: “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.”
Cohen was convicted of lying to Congress about the timing of
the ill-fated Moscow real estate deal. He told Congress that the negotiations
ended in 2016, but in reality they went on at least into the summer. Trump won
the GOP presidential nomination in July 2016. Trump has accused Cohen of lying
and said he “lightly looked at doing a
building somewhere in Russia.” Trump later said that even if he had pursued
it, “there would be nothing wrong with
such a deal.”
Cohen alleges that
Trump knew in advance of the WikiLeaks e-mail dump: “Stone
told Mr. Trump that he had just gotten off the phone with Julian Assange and
that Mr. Assange told Mr. Stone that, within a couple of days, there would be a
massive dump of e-mails that would damage Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Mr. Trump responded by stating to the effect
of wouldn’t that be great.” Trump has denied knowledge of the e-mail dump. Stone
called Cohen’s testimony “not true.”
Cohen alleges that
Trump had made racist remarks in private: “While we were
once driving through a struggling neighborhood in Chicago, he commented that
only black people could live that way. And, he told me that black people would
never vote for him because they were too stupid.”
Cohen also testified
that Trump also used the infamous sh*t hole slur on another occasion: “He once asked me if I could name a
country run by a black person that wasn’t a s**t hole. This was when Barack
Obama was President of the United States.”
After reports early last year that Trump used the crass term
to describe some African countries during a White House meeting, Trump denied
using that specific term but said he used “tough language.”
Cohen alleges that
Trump knew about Cohen’s payments to Stormy Daniels to buy her silence over
their alleged affair, and that Trump reimbursed him: Cohen displayed a check dated August
1, 2017, in the amount of $35,000 and signed by Trump.
Cohen claims this check
was reimbursement for payments Cohen made to Stormy Daniels to ensure her
silence about their alleged affair ahead of the 2016 election and added: “Mr.
Trump directed me to use my own personal funds from a Home Equity Line of
Credit to avoid any money being traced back to him that could negatively impact
his campaign.”
Trump denied in April of last year that he knew in advance of
the payments to Stormy Daniels, and when asked where Cohen got the money for
the payments, Trump said he didn’t know. Cohen alleges that Trump knew about
the Trump Tower meeting in which the campaign was promised dirt on Hillary
Clinton by a Russian operative.
Cohen testified: “I
recalled Don Jr. leaning over to his father and speaking in a low voice, which
I could clearly hear, and saying: ‘The meeting is all set.’ I remember Mr.
Trump saying ‘OK good . . . let me know.’”
Cohen concluded: “I
also knew that nothing went on in Trump world, especially the campaign, without
Mr. Trump’s knowledge and approval. So, I concluded that Don Jr. was referring
to that June 2016 Trump Tower meeting about dirt on Hillary with the Russian
representative when he walked behind his dad’s desk that day — and that Mr.
Trump knew that was the meeting Don Jr. was talking about when he said, That’s
good . . . let me know.”
Trump later said (on AF-1 when reporter asked him directly) that
he had no knowledge of the meeting between his son and the Russian operative.
My 2 cents: Yes, Cohen lied, many times, and he admitted
it many times, too. He is going to prison for those lies and possibly other
crimes.
However, Trump lies willy nilly by a sustained lifetime
habit and that has been documented over 8,000 times before and since he has
been elected.
Cohen is contrite, and believable3. Trump is callous
and unrepentant.
That is the key difference between Trump and Cohen: Cohen
sounds plausible – Trump never does.
Thanks for stopping by.
No comments:
Post a Comment