Cohen in Congress ... again
Michael Cohen reportedly gives Congress documents showing Trump's lawyers edited his false statement
Michael Cohen is back on Capitol Hill, and he has reportedly shared documents with Congress backing up some of last week's testimony.
Cohen on Wednesday gave the House Intelligence Committee documents showing the edits that he says President Trump's attorneys made to the written statement he gave to Congress in 2017, CNN reports. In this statement, Cohen had said that conversations about building a Trump Tower in Moscow ended in January 2016, but he later said they continued for much longer and that he had lied in order to protect Trump. Cohen was convicted for lying to Congress.
When he testified before the House Oversight Committee last week, the former attorney said that Trump's "personal lawyers reviewed and edited my statement to Congress," per The Washington Post. Cohen also testified that Jay Sekulow, a personal lawyer for Trump, made "additions" and that one of them was about "the length of time that the Trump Tower Moscow project stayed and remained alive." Sekulow has denied Cohen's claim. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's attorney, Abbe Lowell, reviewed the changes, Cohen additionally said.
This testimony came after BuzzFeed News reported in January that Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress. But Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office refuted parts of this report, and Cohen testified last week that Trump did not directly tell him to lie to Congress but that he "made clear" indirectly that he wanted him to do so, including by having his lawyers review his statement.