Wed. 11:55 a.m.: Cohen testifies of lies, ‘suspicions’ involving Trump
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- “Not true.”
That’s the word from Roger Stone, a confidant of President Donald Trump, in response to a claim by Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen.
Cohen testified this morning to a House committee that Stone told Trump that the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks planned to release emails damaging to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Cohen says Stone told Trump in July 2016 that Stone had just gotten off the phone with Julian Assange, who run WikiLeaks, and that there would be a “massive dump” of emails harmful to the Clinton campaign.
Cohen’s allegation would contradict the president’s assertions that he was in the dark on this issue.
It’s not immediately clear what evidence Cohen has to support the allegation or how legally problematic the claim it might be for Trump.
Stone has pleaded not guilty to witness tampering and obstruction in Mueller’s investigation
Cohen apologized to Congress and the American people for, in his words, “actively working to hide from you the truth about Mr. Trump when you needed it most.”
Cohen also apologized to lawmakers for lying to Congress in 2017. Cohen pleaded guilty to that lying, among other offenses, and is headed to prison in May.
Cohen told a House committee that “it seems unbelievable that I was so mesmerized by Donald Trump that I was willing to do things for him that I knew were absolutely wrong.”
Cohen said he wouldn’t accept a pardon from the president and he didn’t ask for one.
For more than a decade, Cohen was a key power player in the Trump Organization and a fixture in Trump’s political life.
Cohen is set to begin a three-year prison sentence in May after pleading guilty to lying to Congress in 2017 and committing campaign finance violations while he was working for Trump.
Cohen says he’s speaking before the committee to set the record straight and try to atone for some of his mistakes.
Cohen, testifying under oath before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, also has said that Trump instructed him to pay off women who said they’d had affairs with the president. Trump has denied the claims.Cohen, says Trump personally signed checks repaying him for hush money paid to porn actress Stormy Daniels.
Cohen presented a check to the House Oversight and Reform Committee. The $35,000 check was from dated August 2017.
Cohen has pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations connected to a $130,000 hush-money deal involving porn actress Stormy Daniels. She alleges an affair; Trump denies it.
Cohen says he personally paid Daniels. But Trump’s current lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has said Cohen was repaid through a retainer agreement.
Prosecutors have said the Trump Organization paid Cohen in monthly installments to reimburse him for the Daniels’ payment. They say Cohen used “sham” invoices to try to conceal the true nature of the payments.
A second check from March 2017 was signed by Donald Trump Jr. and Trump’s chief financial officer.
In his testimony this morning, Cohen said Trump lied about his wealth to look richer to Forbes magazine and less wealthy for tax authorities.
Cohen says financial documents show Trump inflated his assets to rank higher on the Forbes world’s billionaires list. Trump ranked 766th on the publication’s latest list, which was released last March.
Cohen claims Trump would also deflate his assets to pay lower real estate taxes.
Democrats have promised an aggressive effort to investigate the president since they regained control of the House in January.
Cohen this morning also told Congress that President Donald Trump lied to the American people about negotiations during the 2016 presidential campaign about a proposed Trump building in Russia.
Cohen says in public testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Committee that Trump “knew of and directed” the negotiations about a proposed Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen pleaded guilty last year to lying to Congress about the timing of the business proposal.
Cohen is testifying that Trump didn’t “directly” tell him to lie to Congress about the project but he did so “in his way.”
Cohen says while he was negotiating the Russian business deal during the campaign, Trump would look him in the eye and tell him “there’s no business in Russia.”
The top Republican on the House Oversight and Reform Committee is charging that Democrats brought Cohen to testify so they can “start their impeachment process.”
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio told the committee chairman, Maryland Democrat Elijah Cummings, at the start of the hearing that “your chairmanship will always be identified by this hearing.”
Jordan and other Republicans are challenging Cohen’s credibility because Cohen is going to prison for lying to Congress in 2017, among other charges.
Democrats invited Cohen to testify after he turned on Trump and started cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
This is a developing story. For more details, check back here at www.tribtoday.com or read Thursday’s Tribune Chronicle print edition.