House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff told CBS News that he will subpoena President Trump’s former longtime attorney Michael Cohen to testify before his committee “if necessary.”
Cohen is already slated to testify before the House Oversight Committee next month prior to the start of his three-year prison sentence.
“Michael Cohen returned to his Manhattan apartment Friday after getting medical treatment – with his arm appearing to be in a sling on a day President Trump and his team once again branded him a liar,” the Daily Mail reports.
“Cohen could be seen Friday with his left arm covered, hanging in a sling. He was holding a full-size white pillow while sporting a possible black eye. His right hand had a small bandage of the kind used to cover a small wound by an IV. He also wore a red identification bracelet of the kind distributed by hospitals.”
“Cohen advisor Lanny Davis said Cohen had gone into the hospital for pre-scheduled shoulder surgery.”
Garrett Graff: “The allegation, which Buzzfeed sourced to two federal law enforcement officials, simultaneously adds new information to both the ‘collusion’ and ‘obstruction’ sides of the Russia probe. The idea that the President of the United States directed his personal attorney to lie to Congress about his attempt to complete a multi-hundred-million-dollar deal with Vladimir Putin in the midst of the presidential campaign is, in short, as big as it gets.”
“While we’ll be unpacking the implications of the apparent revelation for days to come, there are six aspects of the new report which, if true, make clear the scale of the political peril facing the president as of Friday morning.”
President Trump’s former fixer and personal attorney Michael Cohen paid a technology expert to rig online polls in Trump’s favor, the Wall Street Journal reports.
John Gauger, the owner of Red Finch Solutions and chief information officer at Liberty University, said Cohen offered him $50,000 to rig two online polls. Cohen handed Gauger a Walmart bag loaded with about $12,000 in cash during a 2015 meeting at Cohen’s Trump Organization office, but he never paid him the remainder of the promised $50,000.
“Michael Cohen is having reservations about his highly anticipated public appearance before Congress next month, fearing that President Trump’s frequent diatribes against him could put his family in danger,” ABC News reports.
“While his testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform appears to be on track to occur as scheduled on Feb. 7, it is now less certain than it initially appeared that Cohen – Trump’s former attorney and fixer – will sit before lawmakers.”
“The testimony of Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, before the House Oversight Committee next month is expected to be highly restricted to avoid interfering with the special counsel’s Russia investigation, suggesting the hearing may be less revelatory on certain subjects than anticipated,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Mr. Cohen, who is scheduled to speak in an open hearing on Capitol Hill for the first time Feb. 7, won’t be able to talk about topics that he has discussed with special counsel Robert Mueller.”
That said, Cohen “is expected to give an explosive recounting of his experience working for Mr. Trump.”
Said one person close to Cohen: “He’s going to tell the story of what it’s like to work for a madman, and why he did it for so long. He’s going to say things that will give you chills.”
President Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen will testify voluntarily before the House Oversight Committee on Feb. 7, CNBC reports.
New York Times: “Mr. Cohen’s decision to appear before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Feb. 7 sets the stage for a blockbuster public hearing that threatens to further damage the president’s image and could clarify the depth of his legal woes. Mr. Cohen, a consigliere to Mr. Trump when he was a real estate developer and presidential candidate as well as informally as president, was privy to the machinations of Mr. Trump’s inner circle and key moments under scrutiny by both the special counsel, Robert Mueller, and federal prosecutors in New York.”
“He could soon share them on national television under oath.”
Michael Cohen told ABC News that Donald Trump directed him to arrange hush-money payments with two women because then-candidate Trump “was very concerned about how this would affect the election” if their allegations of affairs became public.
Said Cohen: “I knew what I was doing was wrong. I stood up before the world and I accepted the responsibility for my actions.”
When asked if the president also knew it was wrong to make the payments, Cohen replied: “Of course,” adding that the purpose was to “help him and his campaign.”
President Trump disputed claims by former lawyer Michael Cohen that he engaged in “dirty deeds” that include hush payments to two women to keep them quiet during the 2016 election, USA Today reports.
Said Trump: “I never directed Michael Cohen to break the law. He was a lawyer and he is supposed to know the law.”
He added: “It is called ‘advice of counsel,’ and a lawyer has great liability if a mistake is made. That is why they get paid.”
Michael Cohen has been sentenced to 3 years in prison on Wednesday on charges involving campaign finance violations, tax evasion, and lying to Congress in a New York federal court, Axios reports.
According to the Washington Post, Cohen told the judge he’s lived in “personal and mental incarceration” since he started working for Trump.
He’ll have to report to prison on March 6.
“Michael Cohen will be sentenced on Wednesday for his role in the payment of hush money to women who said they had affairs with Trump and for lying to Congress about a proposed Trump Tower project in Russia that was discussed during the 2016 election campaign,” Reuters reports.
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“Believe me, he can’t handle jail.”
— Rudy Giuliani, describing “pathetic” Michael Cohen’s “sad” attempt to avoid jail time to the Daily Beast.
Special counsel Robert Mueller credited Michael Cohen with significant cooperation — including providing “useful information concerning certain discrete Russia-related matters core to its investigation that he obtained by virtue of his regular contact” with Trump organization executives during the campaign, as well as “relevant and useful information concerning his contacts with persons connected to the White House during the 2017–2018 time period,” the Washington Post reports.
They revealed that Cohen told them of what seemed to be a previously unknown November 2015 contact from a Russian national, who claimed to be a “trusted person” in the Russian Federation offering the campaign “political synergy” and “synergy on a government level.”
Federal prosecutors Friday requested that the court impose “a substantial term of imprisonment” for Donald Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen, CNN reports.
Prosecutors said the crimes Cohen had committed “marked a pattern of deception that permeated his professional life,” and though he was seeking a reduced sentence for providing assistance to the government, he did not deserve much leniency.
Said prosecutors: “He was motivated to do so by personal greed, and repeatedly used his power and influence for deceptive ends.”
Washington Post: “Cohen had asked for a sentence of no prison time, citing his cooperation with investigators, but prosecutors for the Southern District of New York filed a memo arguing that he should serve significant time, possibly years, in prison.”
New York Times: “He did all this without first obtaining a traditional, ironclad deal under which the government would commit to seeking leniency on Mr. Cohen’s behalf when he is sentenced on Dec. 12.”
“Mr. Cohen has concluded that his life has been utterly destroyed by his relationship with Mr. Trump and his own actions, and to begin anew he needed to speed up the legal process by quickly confessing his crimes and serving any sentence he receives, according to his friends and associates, and analysis of documents in the case.”
“He has told friends that he is mystified that he is taking the fall for actions he carried out on behalf of Mr. Trump, who remains unscathed. Still, he is resigned to accepting responsibility.”
President Trump said Michael Cohen does not deserve leniency for cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller, arguing that his former personal lawyer should serve a “full and complete” prison sentence, The Hill reports.
Said Trump: “He makes up stories to get a GREAT & ALREADY reduced deal for himself, and get his wife and father-in-law (who has the money?) off Scott Free [sic]. He lied for this outcome and should, in my opinion, serve a full and complete sentence.”
“Lawyers for former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen argued Friday that their client should not go to prison for the criminal charges to which he has pleaded guilty, and unequivocally linked much of his wrongdoing to his desire to protect and support President Trump,” the Washington Post reports.
“In a late-night court filing, lawyers for the onetime Trump loyalist wrote that their client was a changed man who was eager to share his knowledge with law enforcement and mindful that he would have to ‘begin his life virtually anew.’ Their filing detailed what they said was Cohen’s already extensive cooperation, including seven voluntary interviews with the team of special counsel Robert Mueller, as well as meetings with federal prosecutors in New York, representatives of the New York State Attorney General’s office and officials with the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, which are conducting wide ranging probes into Trump’s campaign and his family foundation.”
“According to Cohen’s sentencing submission, federal sentencing guidelines in just the first case call for him to spend as many as five years and three months in jail.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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