https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/27/politics/michael-cohen-testimony/index.htmlQuote
(CNN)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." In the testimony, Cohen will allege that, in 2016, he witnessed Trump taking a phone call from Stone, who was on speakerphone.
"Mr. Stone told Mr. Trump that he had just gotten off the phone with Julian Assange and that Mr. Assange told Mr. Stone that, within a couple of days, there would be a massive dump of emails that would damage Hillary Clinton's campaign," Cohen will say, according to his prepared testimony.
Trump responded, according to Cohen: "Wouldn't that be great."
few bullet points:
- Stone told Trump about the Wikileaks dump in advance
- Cohen says he never saw direct evidence of collusion, which disputes the Steele dossier Prague story
- Cohen says Trump didn't explicitly direct him to lie to Congress, but implicitly suggested it in some way (which disputes buzzfeed story)
- Also Trump's attorneys edited Cohen's testimony to Congress where he lied
- Trump was well aware of Trump Tower Moscow negotiations while he was claiming he had nothing to do with Russia, and Putin was great (which we already knew)
- Cohen is bringing some documentation to the hearing, including checks he received as reimbursement for hush money payment
Cohen wasn't supposed to talk about Russia in public, so not sure why he included that stuff in his prepared statement. I know nothing matters anymore, but we should all take a step back and understand the significance of this. Everything is normalized in the Trump era, but this is pretty good reality television.
This post was edited by IceMage on Feb 27 2019 08:16am