Michael Cohen, Live and In Color
Michael Cohen, President Trump’s long time lawyer, confidant, and “fixer” will be testifying publicly before the House Oversight Committee Wednesday, the second, and only public, of three days of testimony before congress.
Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen is prepared to testify that Trump was aware of longtime adviser Roger Stone’s efforts to reach out to WikiLeaks in advance of its release of damaging information about Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, according to a copy of his public testimony submitted to Congress and obtained by CNN.
In a stunning 20-page statement provided Tuesday night to lawmakers, Cohen details a wide range of allegations against Trump — from making racist comments about African-Americans to participating during his presidency in an illegal hush-money scheme to keep his alleged extramarital affairs quiet — as well as suggesting Trump faked a medical condition to get out of serving in the Vietnam War.
And Cohen will provide new details saying Trump was engaged in an aggressive pursuit of a major project in Russia in 2016, alleging the
President’s attorneys edited Cohen’s 2017 testimony when he lied to Congress, downplaying the efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.He says Trump never directly ordered him to lie to Congress but he believed he was carrying out an order given his interactions with Trump, who was making public statements about not having any business dealings with Russia.
In short, Cohen calls Trump a “racist,” a “conman” and a “cheat.”
The “shocking” part, along with almost all the information Cohen will testify about today, is subjective since almost all of what he is detailing has been readily available for some time. But this type of hearing isn’t really fact finding anyway, being as much public spectacle and political theater as it is a procedural function. But since American politics is predominately a spectator sport, as spectacles go this will be spectacular. A spectacular what, though, remains to be seen.
You can read the prepared transcript of Michael Cohen’s opening statement here:
So what say you? Read and commment below as the day’s events go on.
Gotta mention Gaetz, now that he’s started chewing on his foot.Report
OT guest poster Matt “@RogueNotary” Johnson had this to say about it:
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We need to get him to write for us again.Report
It might help if I got his last name right: it’s “Jameson”.
I regret the error.Report
Conveniently, you could blame Jameson.Report
AOC was great. No grandstanding, all factual questions, when Cohen didn’t know the answer she asked for another source, and she finished with time left over. Along the way, she laid some groundwork for subpoenaing Trump’s tax returns.Report
Welp, I guess someone’s convinced Cohen he’s not getting a pardon from Trump. Burn those bridges, Cohen!
Although as much as I like to see someone revealing the private face of Trump, I do not actually think ‘racist comments’ and ‘faked a medical condition to get out of Vietnam’ are actually relevant to inform Congress of preemptively. The first is not a crime and the second, I believe, was pardoned like most draft dodging?
Save those things for the tell-all, Cohen. Although it is somewhat nice he just made those statements under penalty of lying to Congress.Report
Good lawyers always try to create context around their clients or adversaries. Or so Perry Mason taught us.Report
So far none of the stuff he’s dropped strikes me as anything that is going to move the needle in any significant way.Report
Yeah, this is mostly a rehashing and confirmation of what most anti-Trump folks already believe and pro-Trump folks are inclined to disbelieve or ignore. Their are two things he can tangibly push the disparate threads of the scandal together on, he can link Trump himself to Roger Stone’s contact with Wikileaks and indicate motive by confirming that Trump was actively pushing his Russian business interests late in the campaign, which establishes a fairly plausible motive for Trump to get into bed with Russian interests in the first place.
Now I believe its quite plausible that Wikileaks was serving as a Russian cut out for l’Affair Russe, as it fits the general pattern of Russian tradecraft and Wikileaks is credibly suspected of previously putting out there what Russian agents want to have released, but that’s in the realm of informed speculation, not tangibly demonstrated.
But none of this is enough to convince people to move off their previously established positions on the matter. Its just another incremental step towards the end of this process.Report
Agreed without reservation.Report
Cohen is providing documentation but you and North are right. The people who hate Trump and presume the worst are going to his Cohen’s testimony as very exciting confirmation of their beliefs. I’m inclined to agree with them. People who believe that there is nothing because they either support Trump or really don’t want to believe for other reasons are just going to yawn.Report
Considering that the GOP congresscritters seem to have gone out of their way to defend Trump and discredit Cohen, yeah.
The GOP and some assorted leftier than thou types like HA HA Goodman and Michael Tracey have gone full on Trumpista and it will be a few decades before it calms down.Report
I’m just going to note that Cohen’s testimony is describing many more things of a more serious nature, than the stuff that got Clinton impeached. Indeed, one could make a good case that this is worse than what wound up touching Nixon with respect to Watergate.Report
Also I’d like to point out that the Republican swipes back at Cohen appear to take two forms.
1. He’s a liar.
Well, yes, that’s kind of the whole point.
2. He’s bitter because he didn’t get a White House job.
He’s a) losing his license to practice law, b) going to prison for three years, c) likely to get divorced, and d) likely to become a pariah upon re-gaining his freedom. That’s not the kind of price one pays in order to exact revenge for not getting a job one wants.
What I’m not hearing from any Republican on the committee is “Trump didn’t do these things.” It’s all about Cohen being a bad guy.Report
When you are investigating a criminal conspiracy, your witnesses are likely to have less than stellar moral character.Report
American and the United Kingdom are in the middle of hold my beer contest over inept politicians in power.Report
Canada managed to get unexpectedly get into that competition this week with the Prime Minister’s Office ineptly not taking no for an answer from the ex-Attorney General to the point they resigned from Cabinet and decided to spill the beans to Parliament.
Its turning into a massive own goal that might bring down the government over something they could have easily left well enough alone and been fine on.Report
In the last couple of days, Macron (France) and Sánchez (Spain) have said they will oppose an Article 50 extension unless Parliament brings something new and constructive to the table. The EU Parliament’s Brexit coordinator has said he can’t envision a situation that would allow more than a couple of months extension (ie, not long enough for another referendum). Unnamed sources around the EU Council have said the real deadline is March 22, the last day of the next Council session — implying that the Council would not call an emergency session to consider last-minute UK requests.
At this point, I have to give the nod to the UK politicians. The US side hasn’t put us in the position of “in 32 days we are going to crash the economy” yet.Report
“The US is a republic, not a democracy” gets really tiresome. But the foolishness of deciding Brexit with a referendum gives it a point.Report
What is the overlap on the Venn Diagram between those who begin their tweets or YouTube comments with “a republic, not a democracy,” and who are also strong proponents of judicial review? I’m betting the overlap is a tiny sliver.Report
California also has referendums!!Report
It’s how we got Prop 13 and the bullet train.Report
I think someone on LGM said that Brexit is still popular in Britain. That might be an overstatement but the people who voted leave probably stand by their decision and this is leading to the chaos of UK politics. There were remain and leave voters in both parties probably which led to the Independent Group whom probably will never be a Parliamentary majortiyReport
I hope that this information gets filtered down to the lower-classes:
DON’T TELL YOUR LAWYER STUFF.
THE GOVERNMENT MIGHT MAKE HIM TESTIFY AGAINST YOU.Report
No. It’s don’t involve your lawyer in ongoing criminal conspiracies.
I’m also not sure what your concern is. Are there a lot of low-level criminals who have their won consigliere?Report
Sure, we can make a big deal about how extraordinary this case is and shout it from the rooftops. Just so long as they have a reasonable doubt that they can talk to their public defender, that’ll be good enough for me.Report
There have occasionally been defence lawyers busted for sneaking narcotics into prisons and remand centres. Sneaking some meth into jail seems at least kind of “low-level criminal” compatible…Report