Cohen paints picture of lying leader
Former fixer says US President is a liar and a cheat in damning testimony
For more than seven hours yesterday, Michael Cohen unspooled a withering portrait of President Donald Trump, painting his longtime patron as a liar and a fraud in starkly personal terms.
He described how Trump ordered him to lie to the first lady about his relationship with a porn star and personally directed a hush-money scheme. He said Trump inflated his net worth to try to secure loans and to boost his status. He recounted how Trump made racist remarks, claiming he said at one point that African-Americans were “too stupid” to vote for him.
It was a stunning turn for a man who served as Trump’s lawyer and all-purpose fixer for more than a decade, a role he once embraced with unapologetic ferocity — pledging to take a bullet on the mogul’s behalf as evidence of his loyalty.
Trump responded, taking time out from preparing to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam, to attack Cohen on Twitter, saying he “is lying in order to reduce his prison time”. Cohen has pleaded guilty to nine felonies, including tax evasion and campaign finance violations. In May, he is scheduled to begin serving a three-year prison sentence, the culmination of his dramatic fall from Trump intimate to outcast and felon.
Yesterday, Cohen was zealous about the President’s failings. During occasionally emotional testimony before the House Oversight Committee, he used his backstage view of Trump to level a broad attack against the President’s character.
“Since taking office, he has become the worst version of himself,” Cohen said. “He is capable of behaving kindly, but he is not kind. He is capable of committing acts of generosity, but he is not generous. He is capable of being loyal, but he is fundamentally disloyal.”
Throughout the day, Republicans members of the Oversight panel repeatedly used Cohen’s lies to disparage him and challenge his veracity.
Asked during his testimony if White House staffers may end up in legal jeopardy because of their allegiance to the president, he replied, “Sadly, if they follow blindly like I have, the answer is yes.”
Cohen portrayed himself as an unquestioning member of a cult-like following, saying he carried out Trump’s orders “and concealed his illicit acts” because “I was so mesmerised by Donald Trump that I was willing to do things for him that I knew were absolutely wrong”.
He claimed Trump “frequently told me that his son Don jnr had the worst judgment of anyone in the world”. Branding the President a “racist,” Cohen recalled that Trump told him that “only black people would live that way” as they drove through a poor Chicago neighbourhood.
As for Trump’s view of his chances as the 2016 presidential campaign unfolded, Cohen said, “He never expected to win the primary. He never expected to win the general election. The campaign — for him — was a marketing opportunity.
“Donald Trump is a man who ran for office to make his brand great, not to make our country great.”
After his seven hours of testimony, Cohen issued a warning “to those who support the President and his rhetoric as I once did”. “I pray the country doesn’t make the same mistakes that I have made,” he said, “or pay the heavy price that my family and I are paying.”