Tag: Michael Cohen

Ex-Trump fixer Michael Cohen subpoenaed by Senate committee, lawyer says

The Senate Intelligence Committee issued a subpoena for President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen to testify. (Reuters)

The Senate Intelligence Committee has issued a subpoena for President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, his attorney confirmed Thursday, a day after Cohen sought to cancel a scheduled public appearance on Capitol Hill by citing alleged “threats” from the president against his family.

Several congressional committees have been angling to speak with Cohen since he pleaded guilty last month to lying to Congress about how long into 2016 Trump and his advisers pursued a project to build a Trump Tower in Russia.

Cohen had been scheduled to speak with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in public on Feb. 7, until he postponed it indefinitely “due to ongoing threats against his family from President Trump and Mr. [Rudolph W.] Giuliani,” Cohen’s lawyer Lanny Davis said in a statement Wednesday.

View the complete January 24 article by Robert Costa and Karoun Demirjian on The Washington Post website here.

Cohen postpones testimony, citing threats from Trump

Michael Cohen, the former attorney and “fixer” for President Trump who is now cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller, is postponing his planned congressional testimony next month, citing threats from Trump.

“Due to ongoing threats against his family from President Trump and Mr. Giuliani, as recently as this weekend, as well as Mr. Cohen’s continued cooperation with ongoing investigations, by advice of counsel, Mr. Cohen’s appearance will be postponed to a later date,” Cohen’s legal adviser Lanny Davis said in a statement.

“Mr. Cohen wishes to thank Chairman Cummings for allowing him to appear before the House Oversight Committee and looks forward to testifying at the appropriate time. This is a time where Mr. Cohen had to put his family and their safety first.”

View the complete January 23 article by Tal Axelrod and Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

“Even If He Did Do It, It Wouldn’t Be A Crime”: Rudy Giuliani On President Trump

Credit: CNN Screen Shot

On Sunday, Rudy Giuliani, one of President Trump’s lawyers, made a startling admission to the Times and NBC’s “Meet the Press”: that Trump had been involved in discussions to build a Trump Tower Moscow throughout the 2016 campaign, contradicting Trump’s public statements and raising ever more serious questions about the President’s ties to Vladimir Putin. Giuliani told the Times that Trump had said the discussions were “going on from the day I announced to the day I won.”

Giuliani also said that Trump may have spoken to Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, before Cohen gave false testimony to Congress about the timing of the Moscow discussions, claiming that they had ended in January, 2016. When, in November, Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress, he told prosecutors that they continued at least through June, 2016. Giuliani told the Times that Trump may have acknowledged these conversations in the written answers that he gave to the special counsel, Robert Mueller, late last year. “There was no question that he was asked by the special counsel a question that said, ‘Did you talk to him before he testified?’ ” Giuliani told the Times. The issue of whether Trump influenced Cohen’s false testimony was raised when BuzzFeed reported, on Thursday night, that according to two federal law-enforcement officials, Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress. In response, Mueller’s office issued a rare statement, saying that BuzzFeed’s descriptions of statements, documents, and testimony obtained by the office “are not accurate.” (BuzzFeed has stood by its story.) Continue reading ““Even If He Did Do It, It Wouldn’t Be A Crime”: Rudy Giuliani On President Trump”

Trump and Cohen discussed Trump Tower Moscow right up until 2016 election

Rudy Giuliani told Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that President Trump “can remember having conversations” with Michael Cohen about Trump Tower Moscow right up until the election — as late as November 2016.

One big quote: “No. It’s our understanding that it, that [talks] went on throughout 2016, not a lot of them, … but the president can remember having conversations with [Cohen] about it. … Probably up to, could be up to as far as October, November.”

Between the lines: Giuliani’s rounds on Sunday morning TV related to the BuzzFeed report over the weekend that Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress about a deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

View the complete January 20 article on the Axios website here.

President Trump Directed His Attorney Michael Cohen To Lie To Congress About The Moscow Tower Project

Donald Trump and his longtime attorney Michael Cohen. Credit: Jonathan Ernst, Reuters

President Donald Trump directed his longtime attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, according to two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter.

Trump also supported a plan, set up by Cohen, to visit Russia during the presidential campaign, in order to personally meet President Vladimir Putin and jump-start the tower negotiations. “Make it happen,” the sources said Trump told Cohen.

And even as Trump told the public he had no business deals with Russia, the sources said Trump and his children Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. received regular, detailed updates about the real estate development from Cohen, whom they put in charge of the project.

View the complete January 17 article by Jason Leopold and Anthony Cormier on the BuzzFeed website here.

DNC on Report That President Trump Directed Michael Cohen to Lie to Congress

DNC Chair Tom Perez released the following statement:

“Obstruction of justice is a crime. Suborning perjury is a crime. These grave allegations should be investigated immediately. And if they prove true, the president must be held accountable for these crimes.

“House Republicans dragged their feet, looked the other way, and did everything they could to protect Trump from the rule of law. Now that Democrats are in charge, we will not rest until the American people know the whole truth.”

It Sure Looks Like Trump Obstructed Justice, Huh

A new report indicates that Trump obstructed justice to cover up interactions between his inner circle and Russia that occurred during the 2016 campaign. This report was based on accounts from multiple witnesses and documents, not on Cohen’s testimony. These are very serious charges and this report must be thoroughly investigated.

OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE: Trump reportedly directed his fixer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow during the 2016 presidential campaign.

BuzzFeed: “President Donald Trump directed his longtime attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, according to two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter.”

TRUMP RECEIVED PERSONAL UPDATES: Trump received at least ten personal updates from Cohen on the progress of negotiations for a Trump Tower in Moscow and knew Cohen had talked to the Russian government.

BuzzFeed: “On the campaign trail, Trump vehemently denied having any business interests in Russia. But behind the scenes, he was pushing the Moscow project, which he hoped could bring his company profits in excess of $300 million. The two law enforcement sources said he had at least 10 face-to-face meetings with Cohen about the deal during the campaign. … Trump was even made aware that Cohen was speaking to Russian government officials about the deal.”

NOT A CASE OF HE SAID-HE SAID: The special counsel’s office is reportedly relying on multiple witnesses, emails, text messages, and other documents, not just on Cohen’s testimony.

BuzzFeed: “The special counsel’s office learned about Trump’s directive for Cohen to lie to Congress through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents. Cohen then acknowledged those instructions during his interviews with that office.”

MUST BE INVESTIGATED: Like any other interactions Trump has had with witnesses in the Russia investigation, this report must be thoroughly investigated. The special counsel’s office is doing just that, and House Democrats will too.

Washington Post: “Democrats in Congress vowed Friday to aggressively investigate a new report that President Trump personally directed his former attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about the president’s push for a Moscow real estate project ahead of the 2016 election.”

Cohen to testify publicly before Congress

President Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen has agreed to voluntarily testify before the powerful House Oversight and Reform Committee next month, the Democratic chairman of the panel announced Thursday.

“I thank Michael Cohen for agreeing to testify before the Oversight Committee voluntarily,” Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said in a statement.

“I want to make clear that we have no interest in inappropriately interfering with any ongoing criminal investigations, and to that end, we are in the process of consulting with Special Counsel Mueller’s office. The Committee will announce additional information in the coming weeks.”

View the complete January 10 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Cell signal puts Cohen outside Prague around time of purported Russian meeting

WASHINGTON — A mobile phone traced to President Donald Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen briefly sent signals ricocheting off cell towers in the Prague area in late summer 2016, at the height of the presidential campaign, leaving an electronic record to support claims that Cohen met secretly there with Russian officials, four people with knowledge of the matter say.

During the same period of late August or early September, electronic eavesdropping by an Eastern European intelligence agency picked up a conversation among Russians, one of whom remarked that Cohen was in Prague, two people familiar with the incident said.

The phone and surveillance data, which have not previously been disclosed, lend new credence to a key part of a former British spy’s dossier of Kremlin intelligence describing purported coordination between Trump’s campaign and Russia’s election meddling operation.

View the complete December 27 article by Peter Stone and Greg Gordon on the McClatchyDC website here.

The Memo: Cohen fans flames around Trump

Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, is posing a public relations threat, as well as a legal one, to the White House as he keeps himself center stage in the media.

Cohen gave an interview to ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Friday, in which he insisted that “of course” Trump knew payments to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal were wrong.

Asked by anchor George Stephanopoulos about Trump’s assertion that he had not directed his longtime attorney to do anything wrong, Cohen responded, “I don’t think there’s anybody that believes that.”

View the complete December 15 article by Niall Stanage on The Hill website here.