Michael Cohen, the former attorney and fixer for Donald Trump, who was sentenced last year to three years in prison, has agreed to testify in a public congressional hearing next month about his private sector work for the president.
As Trump’s longtime lawyer and fixer, Cohen had connections to a number of the key questions surrounding the President, the Mueller probe and now the Democratic congressional investigations.
One issue is Trump Tower Moscow.
Cohen worked on the Moscow project during the 2016 presidential campaign, which included outreach to Russian officials.
Cohen initially lied and said the Trump Tower Moscow talks ended in January 2016, but he admitted last month those conversations extended through June 2016 when he pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the project.
Mueller’s court filings revealed that Cohen had spoken to a Russian in 2015 who had offered “political synergy” with the Trump campaign while discussing Trump Tower Moscow.
The payments made or orchestrated to women during the campaign — to adult-film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal — to stay silent about alleged sexual encounters with Trump are also sure to be a hot topic at the congressional hearing.
Donald Trump and adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2005.
Cohen was the central figure in a plot to buy the silence of Daniels, who claimed that she had an affair with Trump in 2006.
Daniels signed a nondisclosure agreement in exchange for $130,000 from Cohen, a transaction that he admitted was a violation of campaign finance laws since it amounted to an illegally large contribution benefiting Trump’s White House hopes.
He also said in court that Trump directed him to make the payment, suggesting the president was guilty of a crime.
The committee, now helmed by Democrats for the first time in eight years, will hear his testimony on February 7.
Cohen said today that the hearing will give him a chance “to give a full and credible acount of the events that have transpired.”
Trump told reporters in Texas an hour after the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee announced its plans: “I’m not worried about it at all. No.”
At one time, in a series of tweets, Trump called Cohen “a fine person with a wonderful family.”
The New York Times and a third rate reporter named Maggie Haberman, known as a Crooked H flunkie who I don’t speak to and have nothing to do with, are going out of their way to destroy Michael Cohen and his relationship with me in the hope that he will “flip.” They use….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2018
….non-existent “sources” and a drunk/drugged up loser who hates Michael, a fine person with a wonderful family. Michael is a businessman for his own account/lawyer who I have always liked & respected. Most people will flip if the Government lets them out of trouble, even if….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2018
….it means lying or making up stories. Sorry, I don’t see Michael doing that despite the horrible Witch Hunt and the dishonest media!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2018
But Trump changed his tune when Cohen flipped on him, prompting a falling out with his former longtime fixer.
If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 22, 2018
Trump has denied directing Cohen to pay women who alleged affairs with Trump.
Cohen addressed his relationship with Trump at his sentencing, saying he had “blind loyalty to this man that led me to choose a path of darkness over light.”
“Recently, the President tweeted a statement calling me ‘weak,’ and he was correct, but for a much different reason than he was implying,” Cohen said at the time. “It was because time and time again I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds rather than to listen to my own inner voice and my moral compass.”