Michael Cohen, Donald Trump‘s former personal lawyer, doesn’t testify in front of the House Oversight and Reform Committee until Wednesday morning, but late Tuesday his opening statement was leaked to The New York Times. In it, Cohen calls Trump a “cheat” and a “conman.”
That’s not all. He says Trump knew long-time adviser Roger Stone was in touch with WikiLeaks and Trump told Cohen to lie about the Moscow Trump Tower project that was in negotiations while the 2016 presidential campaign was ongoing.
Cohen plans to say, “In conversations we had during the campaign, at the same time I was actively negotiating in Russia for him, he would look me in the eye and tell me there’s no business in Russia and then go out and lie to the American people by saying the same thing. In his way, he was telling me to lie.”
Cohen plans to add, “Mr. Trump did not directly tell me to lie to Congress. That’s not how he operates.” (The New York Times)
Fasho Thoughts:
- Cohen will also say that Trump knew, through Stone, that WikiLeaks was going to publish emails hacked from Hillary Clinton‘s campaign.
- Cohen also plans to say that candidate Trump told him to write letters to his high school, college and other such places threatening them not to release his test scores or transcripts.
- Since Cohen says Trump didn’t directly tell him to lie, Trump is off the hook.
- At this point, Cohen’s credibility is shot. No one will believe him.
- Cohen is just telling us what we already know – Donald Trump is untrustworthy.
- Politics is a dirty business. After all this, I feel like I need to take a shower.
Source: CS / CS
