WASHINGTON — Michael Cohen, long-time fixer and personal attorney to President Donald Trump, painted a scathing portrait Wednesday of his former boss in Hill testimony alleging Trump approved hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, knew about the 2016 WikiLeaks email dump in advance and had wanted Congress to receive misleading testimony about his ties to Russia.
Cohen, 52, expressed remorse for his actions and his loyalty to Trump during a blockbuster hearing before the House Oversight Committee that lasted more than seven hours.
Cohen described Trump as an "intoxicating" presence. "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," he said, offering apologies to Congress, his family and the American people.
“I regret the day I said 'yes' to Mr. Trump. I regret all the help and support I gave him along the way,” said Cohen in a 20-page opening statement. “I am not protecting Mr. Trump anymore.”
In his closing remarks, Cohen addressed the president head-on, occasionally looking straight into the cameras while ticking off items on a lengthy list of criticism of Trump's behavior in office, ranging from his weather-based decision to skip a ceremony honoring veterans to his attacks on law enforcement, the media and others.
"You don’t use your power of your bully pulpit to destroy the credibility of those who speak out against you. You don’t separate families from one another or demonize those looking to America for a better life. You don’t vilify people based on the god they pray to, and you don’t cuddle up to our adversaries at the expense of our allies," he said.
"And finally, you don’t shut down the government before Christmas and New Year’s just to simply appease your base. This behavior is churlish, it denigrates the office of the president and it’s un-American and it’s not you."
Cohen is due to report to prison in early May for a three-year sentence for a series of charges he pleaded guilty to last year, including eight felony counts of tax evasion, bank fraud and campaign finance violations, as well as one count of making a false statement to Congress. On the eve of his testimony, a New York state court filing revealed that he had been disbarred.
Democrats, who now control the committee, asked Cohen questions Wednesday about alleged criminal conduct by Trump while Republican members on the committee largely sought to discredit and delegitimize Cohen’s testimony, with one lawmaker describing him as a “pathological liar” due to his previous false statements to Congress.
Trump is a "racist," a "con man" and "a cheat," Cohen said in his opening statement, alleging that the president not only lied about his ongoing efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow during the election but also urged Cohen to lie about them without directly saying so.
Cohen, who worked for Trump for over a decade, addressed why he ultimately lied to Congress in 2017 about the Trump Tower project.
"Mr. Trump knew of and directed the Trump Moscow negotiations throughout the campaign and lied about it. He lied about it because he never expected to win. He also lied about it because he stood to make hundreds of millions of dollars on the Moscow real estate project. And so I lied about it too," said Cohen.
"Mr. Trump had made clear to me, through his personal statements to me that we both knew were false and through his lies to the country, that he wanted me to lie. And he made it clear to me because his personal attorneys reviewed my statement before I gave it to Congress," he added.
"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 also suggested that the president has not told the truth about why he hasn't released his tax returns to the public, saying he had not done so during his campaign because "an entire group of think tanks" would "start ripping it to pieces," he might be forced to pay more taxes or penalties, and the move would lead to an audit. Trump has repeatedly said that he does not want release his tax returns because he is already under audit.
"I presume he is not under audit," Cohen said.
And despite parameters set by Democrats that made issues related to the Russia probe off-limits, Cohen used the opportunity to make new claims that contradicted the president’s previous statements, including the allegation that Trump knew Roger Stone had spoken to Julian Assange ahead of the WikiLeaks drop of Democratic National Committee emails.
“I was in Mr. Trump’s office when his secretary announced that Roger Stone was on the phone," Cohen said. "Mr. Trump put Mr. Stone on the speakerphone. Mr. Stone told Mr. Trump that he had just gotten off the phone with [WikiLeaks founder] 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. Mr. Trump responded by stating to the effect of 'wouldn’t that be great.'"
Cohen, however, said that he knew of no direct evidence that Trump or his presidential campaign colluded with Russia.
