Cohen meets privately with D.C. lawmakers

Third day of questioning last of week

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s former lawyer returned Thursday to Capitol Hill for hours of private questioning a day after publicly accusing his former boss of being a racist and a con man who lied about business dealings in Russia and directed him to conceal extramarital relationships.

Michael Cohen was speaking privately to the House Intelligence Committee in the last of three appearances before Congress this week.

Cohen, who pleaded guilty last year to lying to Congress and reports to prison in May, facing a three-year sentence, gave harsh testimony Wednesday about Trump. He said Trump knew in advance that damaging emails about Democrat Hillary Clinton would be released during the 2016 campaign — a claim the president has denied — and accused Trump of lying during the 2016 campaign about a Moscow real estate project.

The former lawyer displayed copies of financial statements that he said Trump used to inflate his assets and procure a loan from Deutsche Bank. He also produced copies of checks that the president and his family wrote to him after Trump took office — checks that Cohen said were reimbursements for $130,000 he paid adult-film actress Stormy Daniels shortly before the

election to keep her from discussing an alleged sexual encounter with Trump.

Cohen named the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, Alan Weisselberg, as being privy to many of the transactions. On Thursday, a House Intelligence Committee aide said the panel anticipates calling in Weisselberg for an interview, but the aide did not specify a date for when that might happen.

GOP lawmakers insisted several times Wednesday that Cohen was trying to misrepresent his past to lawmakers, such as when he insisted that he had not wanted a job in the Trump administration and had been content to serve as Trump’s personal lawyer.

That claim contradicts reporting and statements by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, who stated in court documents that in private communications, Cohen had told friends that he wanted an administration job — and that when he didn’t get one, he “found a way to monetize his relationship with an access to the President.”

In a letter to Attorney General William Barr, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the ranking Republican on the oversight committee, and Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., also a panel member, list six complaints about Cohen’s testimony Wednesday that they think might rise to the level of perjury or false statements to Congress. They include allegations that Cohen participated in illegal lobbying and did not disclose contracts linked to foreign governments, as well as accusations that he misrepresented his prowess as a lawyer.

Lanny Davis, a lawyer for Cohen, called the referral “baseless” and said Cohen had testified truthfully and “backed up much of his testimony with documents.”

Cohen’s public testimony unfolded as Trump was in Vietnam meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Trump said he tried to watch as much of Cohen’s hearing as he could but called the hearing “fake” and said it was a “terrible thing” for Democrats to hold it during his summit.

“Having a fake hearing like that, and having it in the middle of this very important summit, is really a terrible thing,” Trump said. “They could have made it two days later or next week.”

He seized on Cohen’s concession that he had no direct evidence that Trump or his aides colluded with Russia to get him elected, the primary question underpinning special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

“He lied a lot, but it was very interesting, because he didn’t lie about one thing,” Trump said. “He said no collusion with the Russian hoax. And I said, ‘I wonder why he didn’t lie about that too like he did about everything else?’”

The president said he was “actually impressed” that his former lawyer “didn’t say, ‘Well I think there was collusion for this reason or that.’ He didn’t say that.”

Cohen was the first Trump insider to testify on the inner workings of Trump’s political

and business operations. He likened the president to a “mobster” who demanded blind loyalty from underlings and expected them to lie on his behalf.

“My loyalty to Mr. Trump has cost me everything: my family’s happiness, friendships, my law license, my company, my livelihood, my honor, my reputation and soon my freedom,” Cohen said. “I will not sit back, say nothing and allow him to do the same to the country.”

Cohen said the last contact he had with Trump or anyone acting on the president’s behalf was about two months after the FBI raided his office and hotel room in April. He declined to give details because he said “this topic is actually something that’s being investigated right now” by federal prosecutors in New York.

As Republicans blasted him as a convicted liar, Cohen tried to blunt the attacks by acknowledging his own failings. He called himself a “fool,” warned lawmakers of the perils of blind loyalty to a leader undeserving of it and pronounced himself ashamed of what he had done to protect Trump.

Cohen said he arranged the hush-money payment to Daniels at Trump’s behest and agreed to lie about it to the public and the first lady. And he said he was left with the impression that Trump wanted him to lie to Congress about a Moscow real estate project, though the president never directly told him to.

On Wednesday, Cohen said some of Trump’s lawyers, including Jay Sekulow, had edited his planned comments before his previous testimony in 2017 — including references to the timeline of the Moscow real estate project. Sekulow denied the claim. In general, Cohen said, Trump viewed the 2016 presidential campaign as a potential moneymaking operation because he never thought he would win.

The House Intelligence Committee was expected to investigate that admission further Thursday. Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., has long speculated that Trump and his close affiliates may have laundered money or engaged in financial dealings that could have given foreign actors — not just Russia — leverage over Trump that could affect his actions as president.

“Today Cohen provided the American public with a firsthand account of serious misconduct by Trump & those around him,” Schiff tweeted Wednesday evening. “Tomorrow we’ll examine in depth many of those topics including Trump Tower Moscow, Roger Stone/WikiLeaks and any WH role in Cohen’s false statements to Congress.”

Lawmakers on the House intelligence panel said Thursday that they expected to delve “deeper” in the private hearing with Cohen than they did during his public appearance.