Report: President Donald Trump Directed Michael Cohen to Lie to Congress

Update: Buzzfeed’s report managed to make Mueller hurry up and issue…a statement against Buzzfeed:

“BuzzFeed’s description of specific statements to the Special Counsel’s Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s Congressional testimony are not accurate,” said Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller’s office, in a statement.

It’s highly unusual for the special counsel’s office to provide a statement to the media — outside of court filings and judicial hearings — about any of its ongoing investigative activities.

In response, BuzzFeed said in its own statement, “We are continuing to report and determine what the special counsel is disputing. We remain confident in the accuracy of our report.”

Original post below:

If you went to bed early Thursday, you might have missed Buzzfeed News making quite the splash just after 10p, EST with reporting by Jason Leopold and Anthony Cormier. If true. You won’t be able to miss it this morning, or in the coming days if proven to be accurate.

Now the two sources have told BuzzFeed News that Cohen also told the special counsel that after the election, 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 special counsel’s office learned about Trump’s directive for Cohen to lie to Congress through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents. Cohen then acknowledged those instructions during his interviews with that office.

This revelation is not the first evidence to suggest the president may have attempted to obstruct the FBI and special counsel investigations into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

But Cohen’s testimony marks a significant new frontier: It is the first known example of Trump explicitly telling a subordinate to lie directly about his own dealings with Russia.

Couple of things. As this is unnamed sourced reporting the “if true” connotation stands. Mueller has been thoroughly disciplined so assume the sources are not his team but probably affiliated or with knowledge of the SDNY case against the now-sentenced Cohen. And, of course, there is the problem with Cohen being an established liar.

Just in, Rudy Giuliani’s response to Buzzfeed story: “If you believe Cohen I can get you a great deal on the Brooklyn Bridge.”

— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) January 18, 2019

That last bit will be Team Trump’s main line of defense, no doubt, but it’s important to note that the sentencing memo made clear the only information from Cohen himself accepted for his plea were items that were corroborated. Back in December when the Cohen sentencing occurred, NRO’s David French wrote this:

If you read the special counsel’s Cohen memo, you’ll note that the special counsel takes pains to note that Cohen’s false statements to investigators were “deliberate and premeditated” and “did not spring spontaneously from a line of examination or a heated colloquy during a congressional hearing.” His lies were in a “written submission” and a “prepared opening statement.” These lies were allegedly told to “minimize the links” between the Moscow Trump Tower project and Trump himself.

Also — and this is crucial — the memo notes that Cohen has been cooperating in describing the “circumstances of preparing and circulating his response to the congressional inquiries” [emphasis added].

In plain English, this means that it is highly likely that senior Trump officials reviewed Cohen’s prepared, false testimony before he lied to Congress. This raises two important questions. Was Trump aware of the substance of Cohen’s testimony? If so, was Trump aware that Cohen’s testimony was false?

As much as Trump’s defenders may want to minimize “process crimes,” it remains a fact that the last two articles of impeachment drafted against American presidents featured clear evidence of, yes, process crimes. Process crimes are still crimes. It is an enduring feature of political corruption that politicians will lie about things that aren’t illegal but are politically or personally embarrassing — and when they lie under oath or cause others to lie under oath they violate the law.

The Buzzfeed piece paragraph that is going to get the most attention is this one:

The special counsel’s office learned about Trump’s directive for Cohen to lie to Congress through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents. Cohen then acknowledged those instructions during his interviews with that office.

What exactly that information is, and entails, will be the crux of how much of a bombshell this report is going forward. Does it line up with the sentencing memo information, as it appears to do? If it’s true it is undoubtedly a crime on the part of the president, but having committed a crime doesn’t ensure removal from office; that takes impeachment in the House and a conviction in the Senate. Cohen is scheduled to testify to before congress on Feb. 7th. It will be interesting to see what else is reported, leaked, or discovered between now and then. But the drumbeat for congressional action, and the “I” word, will only get louder with more information. Mueller is not going to be pressured to finish until he is good and ready, the president isn’t going to back down, and congress and the country will not be gaining in patience for a resolution. And, oh by the way, you may have heard some folks are starting to run for president in 2020. That is a lot of “ifs”.

This will get much worse before it gets better.

Of that, there is no “if”.