Michael Cohen Will Likely Tell Congress That Trump Broke The Law While In Office, Per Reports
Michael Cohen is expected to testify to Congress this week that his former boss, Donald Trump, committed crimes while in office, according to reports that emerged Tuesday. Further, as The New York Post reports, Trump’s former attorney and fixer will tell Congress about Trump’s “lies, racism, and cheating.”
Cohen once famously said that he would “take a bullet” for Trump, but now that he’s facing prison time for lying to the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2017 – under Trump’s orders, he’s expected to claim – there’s a good chance he won’t pull any punches when he returns to Washington for three days of testimony.
On Tuesday, Cohen will testify behind closed doors before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Again on Thursday, he’ll return to a closed-door session, this time with the House Intelligence Committee.
But on Wednesday, Cohen will speak before an open and public session with the House Oversight Committee, and two companion reports in The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post each suggest that Cohen’s testimony on Wednesday will be “explosive.”
Alleged criminal acts
Perhaps the most damning of the revelations Cohen is expected to announce on Wednesday concerns his 2017 testimony for Congress, for which he’ll be going to prison. Cohen is expected to tell legislators that he lied to them on Trump’s orders. He is believed to have told FBI special counsel Robert Mueller, who is spearheading the investigation into possible ties between Trump and Russian agents, the same thing.
When he testifies before Congress tomorrow, Michael Cohen will publicly accuse Pres. Trump of potentially committing a crime while in office, sources tell @ABC News. https://t.co/dzttTLGGGh pic.twitter.com/iA9tRhrDc8
— ABC News (@ABC) February 26, 2019
There will be more allegations of criminal acts, the reports claim. Beyond testifying about being ordered to perjure himself, Cohen is also expected to allege that, during his ten years working “behind the scenes” with Trump, he uncovered evidence that Trump artificially inflated his net worth in order to appear on a Forbes list of richest people, but that he, conversely, fudged his income downward when it came to taxes, in order to avoid paying more.
Other questionable conduct
Beyond allegations of criminal acts, Cohen is also expected to tell Congress that Trump “made racist comments to him.” Purported examples include allegedly questioning the intelligence and lifestyle choices of African Americans.
White House response
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, via CNBC, says that Cohen has already proven himself to be a liar and that his testimony shouldn’t be taken seriously.
“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.”
