The following article by Karoun Demirjian was posted on the Washington Post website October 24, 2017:
Michael Cohen, President Trump’s personal lawyer and a former lawyer for his business, met with the House Intelligence Committee for almost six hours Tuesday in what one committee Democrat called a “contentious” exchange.
The committee also met for several hours with Trump’s former campaign digital director, Brad Parscale, who said in a CBS interview earlier this month that Trump won the election through use of Facebook advertising.
That meeting comes just one week before House and Senate investigators are expected to speak with Facebook, Twitter and Google executives, in back-to-back public hearings on Nov. 1 to investigate how Russia used social media to try to influence the election.
House Intelligence Committee member Thomas J. Rooney (R-Fla.), who is helping to run the panel’s Russia probe, said “there will be some overlap” between the subjects discussed in Tuesday’s closed-door interview with Parscale and next week’s open hearing, but did not detail what that would be.
The Cohen meeting is the first of two closed-door sessions Trump’s lawyer is expected to hold on Capitol Hill this week with committees investigating Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 election. The second, with the Senate Intelligence Committee, is expected to take place Wednesday.
Cohen was initially supposed to speak with Senate investigators Wednesday in an open hearing, but that session was canceled last week. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) declined to say on Tuesday why the Wednesday meeting had been moved behind closed doors.
Cohen was tight-lipped as he emerged from the meeting with the House Intelligence Committee Tuesday, ignoring reporters’ questions for comment. He has in the past vigorously denied playing any role in Russia’s efforts during the presidential election campaign.
Last month, the Senate Intelligence Committee canceled an interview with Cohen because he made statements to the news media in advance of it. Burr and Vice Chairman Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) promised to establish a zero-tolerance policy for witnesses speaking to the press in advance of their committee interviews going forward.
View the post here.