What To Expect From Michael Cohen's Congressional Testimony On Wednesday
Update, 12:30 am: Cohen's prepared testimony has been released, in which he calls Trump a "racist," "conman" and "cheat" and says Trump was aware of the DNC email dump before it happened. You can read it below:
Previously: On Wednesday, Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer and fixer, is scheduled to testify in a public hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. (Cohen is also testifying before the House and Senate Intelligence Committees this week, albeit in private.) Prior to his testimony, a person or people described as being "familiar with what he intends to say in his testimony," "familiar with his preparation" or "familiar with the matter" have alerted the press that Cohen intends to accuse Trump of "lies, racism and cheating" and to present documents backing up his claims. Here's what's to expect from what's likely to be the year's most explosive congressional hearings.
First, some background: As you may recall, last August Cohen pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign finance laws when he arranged payments to adult film performer Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen MacDougal to keep quiet about their affairs with Trump. He later also pleaded guilty to lying to Congress in 2017 about Trump's plans for a potential Trump Tower in Moscow. He is set to begin a three-year prison sentence for these and other crimes, including tax evasion and bank fraud, in May. Cohen initially accepted an invitation to testify from House Oversight Committee chair Elijah Cummings (D-MD) back in January, but he later pulled out, citing "threats against his family" from Trump associates, before rescheduling his testimony for tomorrow.
Cohen won't be discussing any topics related to Russian election interference or other subjects still under investigation by the office of the special counsel during tomorrow's public hearing. Instead, he'll be answering questions about Russia during his closed-door hearings before House and Senate Intelligence Committees. However, he will publicly answer questions related to "the president's debts and payments relating to efforts to influence the election, along with what he knows about Trump's business activities and charitable organization, potential conflicts of interest and campaign-finance violations, and his compliance with other requirements and laws," according to Vanity Fair.
The Washington Post's Matt Zapotosky and Rosalind S. Helderman have compiled a list of 20 questions congresspeople could ask Cohen during both the open- and closed-door hearings, and they're worth reading in full if you're interested in digging into the potential scope of all three hearings. Here are a few of the questions they came up pertaining to Cohen's hush money payments, one of which was routed through National Enquirer publisher AMI:
13. How many times did you discuss payments to Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels with President Trump before and after the 2016 election? …
14. Did you ever discuss payments to McDougal and Daniels with other members of the Trump family? With other campaign officials? …
15. According to AMI's non-prosecution agreement, you met with AMI publisher David Pecker and a member of the Trump campaign in August 2015 to discuss how AMI could assist the campaign by buying and burying negative stories about President Trump's relationships with women. Was the campaign member President Trump?
Cohen is reportedly eager to answer specific questions about the hush money payments and the extent to which they were personally directed by Trump.
Cohen's lawyers have prepared him by asking detailed and process-oriented questions, so that he is able to tell the full story behind the $130,000 payment to Daniels, in particular. The sorts of things he could answer run from beginning to end: What did you tell Trump about the payment and how did he react? Did you tell Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg about it? How did you decide that the payment would come from your personal account instead of through the Trump Organization? Once that was decided, did you discuss how you were going to get paid back? If they were going to make it a retainer fee, did you discuss how it was going to be put on the books or if it would violate campaign-finance laws? Did the reimbursements begin after Trump was sworn in, and if checks were written, who signed them? Cohen's answers to these questions, according to the people familiar, are chilling.
More specifically, Cohen reportedly plans to present documents implicating Trump in a criminal plot to pay off Daniels.
Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, plans to offer up a document to lawmakers that he claims will show the president engaged in criminal conduct related to a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, according to a person familiar with his planned congressional testimony.
The person said the document will refute a claim by Rudy Giuliani, Trump's attorney, that Cohen used a $35,000 a month retainer to reimburse Cohen for paying off Daniels.
[Politico]
Additionally, Cohen reportedly intends to testify that Trump made racist statements and routinely overstated his net worth when talking to journalists but understated it when filing his tax returns.
He is prepared to describe Mr. Trump making racist statements, as well as lying or cheating in business. Last fall, Mr. Cohen told Vanity Fair that Mr. Trump frequently used racist language, telling the magazine that his former boss said during the 2016 campaign that "black people are too stupid to vote for me."
He will also describe the president inflating or devaluing his net worth, referring to a financial statement of Mr. Trump's that Mr. Cohen has in his possession, the person said. Those financial statements cannot be independently verified without Mr. Trump's tax returns, which he has never made public, the person said.
Cohen will likely face pushback from Republican lawmakers regarding the fact that he has already admittedly lied to Congress. On Tuesday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement denouncing Cohen as an unreformed liar, saying,
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.
[Via the New York Times]
Trump will be in Hanoi for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this week, but CNN reports that the president "will stay up overnight in Hanoi and watch Wednesday's hearing."
Meanwhile, Cohen was officially disbarred for his various crimes on Tuesday, and Florida congressman and ardent Trump supporter Matt Gaetz tried to publicly blackmail Cohen:
