Posted on 02/26/2019 10:10:36 PM PST by yesthatjallen
Michael Cohen's testimony to the House Oversight and Reform Committee
Michael Cohen is expected to deliver a scathing and explosive testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Committee Wednesday, calling President Trump a "conman," a "racist" and a "cheat," according to a copy of his prepared remarks obtained by The Hill.
Cohen, Trump's former personal lawyer turned political foe, also directly alleges that President Trump knew ahead of time that Roger Stone, the politically connected Republican operative who worked as an informal adviser to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, coordinated with WikiLeaks to dump a tranche of Democratic emails during the 2016 election.
"I am ashamed because I know what Mr. Trump is. He is a racist. He is a conman. He is a cheat. He was a presidential candidate who knew that Roger Stone was talking with Julian Assange about a WikiLeaks drop of DNC emails," Cohen says in the prepared remarks. "A lot of people have asked me about whether Mr. Trump knew about the release of the hacked Democratic National Committee emails ahead of time. The answer is yes," they continue.
Cohen claims that Stone called and that Trump spoke to him on the speakerphone, in which he overheard Stone saying that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is planning to dump emails in a couple days that "would damage Hillary Clinton's campaign."
"Mr. Trump responded by stating to the effect of 'wouldn't that be great,'" Cohen's prepared remarks say.
The White House and Roger Stone did not immediately return requests for comment by The Hill.
Cohen also confronted Republican criticism about his credibility head on, stating that he plans to offer documentation to back up his claims about the president.
"I recognize that some of you may doubt and attack me on my credibility. It is for this reason I have incorporated into this opening statement documents that are irrefutable and demonstrate that the information you will hear is accurate and truthful," he says.
The White House and the president's allies have argued there is reason not to believe Cohen.
This is in large part because Cohen, who became entangled in two separate prosecutions by the Southern District of New York and the special counsel's investigation, pleaded guilty last year to lying to Congress as well as violating campaign finance laws and financial crimes.
“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,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement released Tuesday.
Cohen's testimony makes a series of appalling allegations against the president, including that he said black people "would never vote for him because they were too stupid."
He also suggested that Trump expected him to lie about his business negotiations to set up a Trump Tower in Moscow.
"Mr. Trump did not directly tell me to lie to Congress. That's not how he operates ... 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," Cohen's prepared remarks say.
"Mr. Trump knew of and directed the Trump Moscow negotiations throughout the campaign ... He lied about it because he never expected to win the election. He also lied about it because he stood to make hundreds of millions of dollars on the Moscow real estate project."
Cohen claims Trump repeatedly asked him about the status of the deal and "made it clear" he wanted him to lie to Congress about the negotiations because "his personal attorneys reviewed my statement before I gave it to Congress."
The bombshell remarks signal that Wednesday is going to be explosive as lawmakers seek to peel back the layers of what Cohen knows about the president and any alleged dirty laundry he may have knowledge about. Cohen, however, will not be discussing anything Russia related — that is a topic he will testify about behind closed doors on Thursday before the House Intelligence Committee and which he testified about before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday.
Cohen's public testimony will take place while his former boss is likely watching from Vietnam, where he is meeting again with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Prior to the release of Cohen's prepared testimony, the White House has sought to downplay Cohen's congressional appearance.
“I don’t think the president has any concerns whatsoever about Michael Cohen,” Sanders said Friday on Fox News. “I think Michael Cohen may need to be concerned for himself, but that’s certainly something that’s not influencing or bothering us in this building.”
His prepared remarks suggest, however, that his public appearance will be hard to ignore.
I’m not yet at the point where these attacks on the president don’t worry me, but I should be.
Let’s face it: Cohen is just the latest Wile E. Coyote to chase the Orange Roadrunner.
This will all become moot when it’s revealed that Seth Rich gave the emails to Assange
Horseshite! All of it. Roger Stone never talked to Wikileaks.
Who would believe this disgraced POS lawyer?
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Total BS.
Andrew Weismann demanded these statements in exchange for lesser sentence.
Cohen wanted to be inside the White House and inside the family.
John Podesta’s password was password.
NSA hackers put out a statement saying it wasn’t Russia that entered the account, and remember what the FbiDoj is hiding, every email to/from Hillary’s account went to CHiNA (Chinese Intelligence).
Cohen is disbarred and convicted criminally of lying under oath, Hillary’s boy, Lanny, is running things.
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Will Cohen be under oath?
All the charade does is let Adam Schift head leak it without the leak connotation. No new ground and if there was hard evidence it would have hit a long time ago. The House will vote to impeach and it will die in the senate as long as us deplorables stick with DJT. I ain’t going nowhere without a fight. MAGA
Literally, UNBELIEVABLE! Who the hell was his “writer”?
This sounds very exciting for #FakeNews ... but the Mule has spoken. Stone was exaggerating ... nobody got anything that wasn’t already known in the public domain. And, in fact, Stone suspected (as many) that the Wikileaks dumps were going to be HRC e-mails - but the e-mails that Wikileaks published were the same FOIA that had already been released. Instead we got DNC (His Name Was Seth Rich) and Podesta (Spirit Cooking). That fact is consistently lost. Let’s do the Time Warp again!
What gets me is that even if it is true, It isn’t illegal. Or even immoral.
Andrew Weismann demanded these statements in exchange for lesser sentence.
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Tony, it sure sounds like something Weismann would come up with in his DESPERATION,
Most of it can be dismissed as hearsay from a disbarred lawyer who lied to Congress.
But that's not going to stop Democrats using it to attack Trump on multiple fronts.
“Cohen, however, will not be discussing anything Russia related — that is a topic he will testify about behind closed doors on Thursday“
Why not?
It reminds me of Blasey Ford.
How many writers were involved in producing this script and how many drafts were there?
According to Sundance this is all part of the plan by the Uniparty - including McConnell - to impeach our President.
The whole thing is outrageous...especially with Hillary getting filthy rich by selling out the USA.
Jealousy rears its ugly head in these investigations of the President. Please, everyone, continue to pray for President Trump’s safety, wisdom from the Lord, rest, and reassurance from the American people that we appreciate his stance on moral issues, the economy,homeland security and national defense!
Ridiculous lie. It has already been established that Cohen and one of HIS conmen tried to insert themselves into the Moscow deal unsuccessfully, and it led into a financial swindle of some companies who paid him for influence he never had.
“According to Sundance this is all part of the plan by the Uniparty - including McConnell - to impeach our President.”
I wonder what tipped him off? /s All the jack-booted raids on Trump’s associates and his lawyer wasn’t just for show.
p
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