Trump's ex-fixer Cohen says he is keen to tell his story in public

[能田]

(World Today Wednesday 27 February 2019)

Trump's ex-fixer Cohen says he is keen to tell his story in public

Mr Michael Cohen (L), US President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, arrives for a closed-door

interview with the Senate Intelligence Committee in Washington on Tuesday morning,

Feb 26, 2019. New York Times

Updated 27 February, 2019

WASHINGTON — Mr Michael Cohen, a once-loyal "fixer" for US President Donald Trump who has turned against his former boss, said on Tuesday (Feb 26) he was keen to tell his story of Mr Trump's business and personal dealings in a public hearing in Congress on Wednesday.

In brief comments after a full day of closed-door testimony in the Senate, Mr Cohen said he would make his public case on Wednesday for why Americans should believe him over Mr Trump.

"I look forward to tomorrow to being able ... in my voice to tell the American people my story and I'm going to let the American people decide exactly who's telling the truth," Mr Cohen told reporters.

Mr Cohen is expected to provide details about hush-money payments made to two women who said they had sexual affairs with Mr Trump, and about Mr Trump's efforts to secure a real estate project in Moscow even as he was running for president in 2016, a source familiar with the matter said.

Mr Cohen will also offer first-hand anecdotes to illustrate Mr Trump's "lies, racism and cheating" during the decade Mr Cohen worked for the real estate mogul, and provide "evidence of criminal conduct" since Mr Trump became president, the source said.

As Mr Cohen testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, Republican US Representative Matt Gaetz, a Trump ally, suggested in a tweet that compromising information about Mr Cohen's private life might soon be released.

"Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends?" Mr Gaetz said on Twitter.

Mr Gaetz later denied suggestions that his tweet amounted to witness intimidation. "It is challenging the veracity and character of a witness. We do it everyday," he told the Daily Beast.

The lawmaker does not sit on the House Oversight Committee, which will conduct Wednesday's hearing with Mr Cohen, so he will not be allowed to ask him questions.

Mr Lanny Davis, an attorney for Mr Cohen, said: "We will not respond to Mr Gaetz's despicable lies and personal smears, except to say we trust that his colleagues in the House, both Republicans and Democrats, will repudiate his words and his conduct."

Mr Cohen, 52, is testifying before congressional committees for three straight days this week, but only the second session, on Wednesday, will be in public.

His testimony comes as Special Counsel Robert Mueller appears to be near the end of his investigation into whether Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election in collusion with Mr Trump's campaign.

Mr Trump has denied any collusion between his campaign and Moscow. Russia denies US intelligence agencies' assertions that it interfered in the election.

In about nine hours of testimony on Tuesday, Mr Cohen was asked about Mr Trump's dealings with Russia, as well as his own lies in previous testimony to Congress.

Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate committee, suggested Cohen's testimony was important to its own probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

"Two years ago when this investigation started, I said it may be the most important thing I'm involved in my public life in the Senate and nothing I have heard today dissuades me from that view," Warner told reporters outside the hearing room.

'TAKE A BULLET'

Mr Cohen was one of Mr Trump's closest aides and once said he would "take a bullet" for him. But he turned against Mr Trump last year and is cooperating with prosecutors after pleading guilty to tax evasion, bank fraud and campaign finance violations.

Mr Cohen has been sentenced to prison for three years and is scheduled to start that sentence on May 6.

He has said Mr Trump directed him to arrange hush-money payments for an adult-film actress known as Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who both said they had sexual relationships with Mr Trump.

Federal prosecutors have said those payments were aimed at protecting Mr Trump's 2016 election campaign and so were made in violation of campaign finance laws.

Mr Trump has repeatedly denied ordering the payments and called Mr Cohen a "rat" after he turned on him. The White House again questioned Cohen's credibility on Tuesday.

"It's laughable that anyone would take a convicted liar like Cohen at his word, and pathetic to see him given yet another opportunity to spread his lies," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.

Mr Cohen intends to give lawmakers "granular details" about the hush-money payments to the two women, and information about a "money trail" after Mr Trump became president, said the person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee plan to question Mr Cohen publicly about Mr Trump's personal finances as well as alleged efforts by Mr Trump and his lawyers to intimidate Mr Cohen to try to keep him from testifying.

Last November, Mr Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress by telling lawmakers in 2017 that Trump's pursuit of a real estate deal in Moscow project had ceased by January 2016.

Mr Cohen is expected to tell the committee that Mr Trump was still inquiring about the project as late as June 2016, deep into the election campaign. REUTERS