House panel releases Michael Cohen transcripts
The House Intelligence Committee has released transcripts of its private interviews with Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former attorney.
The panel voted 12-7 at a closed-door meeting Monday evening to release the transcripts, according to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).
The committee interviewed Cohen behind closed doors on February 28 and March 6 – before he reported to prison to serve a three-year sentence for bank fraud, campaign finance violations and other charges – as part of an investigation into the president’s business dealings in Russia and other foreign countries.
The interviews marked a return appearance for Cohen, who pleaded guilty last November to lying to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees about discussions to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.
Along with transcripts of Cohen’s testimony, the committee has also released exhibits that Cohen provided the panel.
Monday’s vote came roughly a week after it was revealed the committee has been investigating whether attorneys connected to President Trump and his family helped obstruct the investigation by editing or shaping Cohen’s false testimony.
Cohen was the committee’s first major witness after Schiff revived and expanded the committee’s investigation into Russian interference, to include looking at Trump’s foreign financial dealings and the possibility he or others in his inner circle could be subject to compromise by a foreign power.
Cohen’s marathon appearance on Capitol Hill took place roughly a month before special counsel Robert Mueller concluded his two-year investigation into Russian interference. Mueller did not find evidence to charge members of the Trump campaign with conspiring with Russia; the special counsel also did not reach a conclusion on whether the president obstructed justice.
Schiff’s investigation is one of several that Trump is fighting from the Democrat-led House. The White House has accused Democrats of overreaching and trying to score political points against the president on the verge of a reelection year. Democrats, meanwhile, are intent on drilling down on a series of investigations into Trump’s conduct and his administration, arguing it is their prerogative to serve as a check on the executive branch.
In February, Cohen told the House Oversight Committee during public testimony that Trump’s attorneys reviewed his false statement before he delivered to Congress in 2017 and that changes were made to it with respect to the duration of the Trump Moscow property discussions within the Trump Organization.
The president’s personal attorney Jay Sekulow pushed back forcefully on Cohen’s testimony at the time, saying his allegations that the president’s attorneys changed his statement by altering the duration of the Moscow property talks are “completely false.”
Cohen has also alleged that Trump’s representatives “dangled” pardons in a bid to secure his loyalty.
Cohen, who reported to prison earlier this month to begin serving a three-year term for campaign finance violations, bank fraud and other charges, pleaded guilty last November to lying to Congress as part of a deal to cooperate with Mueller. Cohen admitted that the discussions about the property plans extended into June 2016 – six months longer than he initially testified – among other things.
Schiff’s panel has sought testimony and documents from Sekulow and other attorneys linked to the president’s family in connection with an investigation into whether they edited or shaped Cohen’s 2017 testimony, which was given in connection with the committee’s original GOP-led investigation into Russian interference during the last Congress.
“If there were others that were participating in that act of obstruction of justice, if there were others that were knowing of that false statement, participated in the drafting of that false statement, we need to know about it and we need to expose it,” Schiff told reporters last week.
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/444651-house-panel-releases-michael-cohen-transcripts