Testifying in closed session today before the Senate Intelligence Committee, President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen has been exploited by the Democrat Party to undermine the president’s summit in Hanoi with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. Whatever the reasons Democrats couldn’t wait a week before Trump finished his high stakes summit, it shows the egregious partisanship, putting party before country. Cohen pled guilty to multiple felonies Aug. 23, 2018, after cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman. Cohen pleaded guilty to perjury for lying to Congress, campaign finance violations, income tax evasion, bank and wire fraud and illegally selling New York City taxi medallions. Media reports don’t talk about Cohen’s multiple felonies, only violating campaign finance laws.
Today’s closed-door hearing with Sen. Richard Burr’s (R-N.C.) Intelligence Committee focused on why Cohen lied to Congress about his involvement during the campaign in the Trump Tower Moscow project. Cohen told Congress in 2016 that he had completed all work on the project in Dec. 2016, when it fact email exchanges proved he was still talking to the Russians until June 2017. That six month difference earned Cohen a perjury conviction, on a plea bargain that netted Cohen three years in federal prison starting May 1. Tomorrow’s public testimony tomorrow before Rep. Elijiah Cummings’ (D-Ga.) House Government Reform and Oversight Committee promises to eclipse Trump’s summit with Kim. Democrats made sure to steal the headlines from Trump, shifting the media’s attention away from Hanoi and onto Cohen’s salacious testimony in Washington D.C.
Cohen has promised to rat out Trump to the fullest extent possible, saying that he’s simply giving his story of events, especially about hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels [AKA Stephanie Clifford] and Playboy centerfold Karen McDougal, both claiming one-night stands with Trump in 2006. Since his arrest and conviction on multiple felonies, Cohen became a cooperating witness for Special Counsel Muellet and U.S. Atty. Berman. It’s unimaginable, no matter how Cohen reduced his jail-time, that he would sing like a canary against his former boss, letting Democrats use him to go after the president. Showing that Democrats have no restraint when it comes to going after Trump, Mueller at least decided to wait on his final report to Atty. Gen. Bill Barr until Trump returns from Vietnam. Democrats had no compunction about putting Cohen on the stand this week.
Before Cohen reports for federal prison May 1, he wanted to “clear the record and tell the truth” in open testimony before Cummings’ committee. “I look forward to tomorrow, to be able to in my voice to tell the American people my story,” Cohen repeated to reporters Tuesday. Why Democrats or Cohen think the American people want to hear his nonsense is anyone’s guess. Disbarred today by the New York Attorney General’s office, Cohen has zero credibility, while Democrats try their best to use him for their own political gain in the 2020 election. Whether he’s believed or not, Cummings wants nothing more than to allow Trump’s former personal attorney to stab him in the back on national TV. Whether his story’s believable or not is of no importance to Democrats looking to smear Trump anyway possible. Letting Cohen lash out at Trump makes good theater.
Cohen promised to expose Trump’s “lying, racism, cheating, and criminal conduct.” Told he ran a “smorgasbord of fraudulent conduct,” Judge William Pauley III left no doubt about Cohen’s sophisticated criminal activity. Yet tomorrow, Cohen plans to tell the world that Trump told him to violate federal campaign laws by paying hush money to Daniels and McDougal. Trump has said repeatedly he never asked Cohen, a licensed New York attorney, to do anything illegal. Cohen plans to show the committee a cancelled check, reimbursing him for paying off Stormy. Yet the whole matter related to Stormy Daniels and McDougal had to do with a private manner, taking no cash from Trump’s presidential campaign. Cohen’s plea bargain to Mueller or U.S. Attorney’s office had to do with his situation, not Trumps. Democrats can’t wait to let Cohen smear Trump on national TV.
Pulling the rug out from underneath the summit in Vietnam, Democrats have stolen all the headlines for now, hoping their convicted felon star witness throws as much mud on Trump as possible. “Two years ago when this investigation started I said I may be the most important thing I m involved in my public life in the Senate, and nothing I’ve heard today dissuaded me from that view,” said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.). Placing all his trust in Cohen, Warner shows the egregious partisanship plaguing Washington. Refusing to join today’s circus, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tx.) shared his skepticism. “I don’t have any desire to go listen to a lying lawyer,” Cornyn said. Democrats hope that Cohen provides fresh testimony and new documents on Trump’s finances, especially on the Trump Tower Moscow project, to begin impeachment hearings in the House at the earliest possible time.
