Cohen's Testimony to Congress
Michael Cohen's opening testimony to congress has been posted on the New York Slime's and it's funny as hell. How much of it is truthful is unknown, but from what I have read, he has taken a few liberties.
Over the past two years, I have been smeared as “a rat” by the President of the United States. The truth is much different, and let me take a brief moment to introduce myself.
I have asked this Committee to ensure that my family be protected from Presidential threats, and that the Committee be sensitive to the questions pertaining to ongoing investigations. Thank you for your help and for your understanding.
I am here under oath to correct the record, to answer the Committee’s questions truthfully, and to offer the American people what I know about President Trump.
I recognize that some of you may doubt and attack me on my credibility. It is for this reason that I have incorporated into this opening statement documents that are irrefutable, and demonstrate that the information you will hear is accurate and truthful.
Never in a million years did I imagine, when I accepted a job in 2007 to work for Donald Trump, that he would one day run for President, launch a campaign on a platform of hate and intolerance, and actually win. I regret the day I said “yes” to Mr. Trump. I regret all the help and support I gave him along the way.
I am ashamed of my own failings, and I publicly accepted responsibility for them by pleading guilty in the Southern District of New York.
I am ashamed of my weakness and misplaced loyalty – of the things I did for Mr. Trump in an effort to protect and promote him.
I am ashamed that I chose to take part in concealing Mr. Trump’s illicit acts rather than listening to my own conscience.
I am ashamed because I know what Mr. Trump is. He is a racist.
He is a conman.
He is a cheat.
Let's get to his testimony.
Wikileaks
He was a presidential candidate who knew that Roger Stone was talking with Julian Assange about a WikiLeaks drop of Democratic National Committee emails.
A lot of people have asked me about whether Mr. Trump knew about the release of the hacked Democratic National Committee emails ahead of time. The answer is yes.
As I earlier stated, Mr. Trump knew from Roger Stone in advance about the WikiLeaks drop of emails.
In July 2016, days before the Democratic convention, I was in Mr. Trump’s office when his secretary announced that Roger Stone was on the phone. Mr. Trump put Mr. Stone on the speakerphone. Mr. Stone told Mr. Trump that he had just gotten off the phone with Julian Assange and that Mr. Assange told Mr. Stone that, within a couple of days, there would be a massive dump of emails that would damage Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Mr. Trump responded by stating to the effect of “wouldn’t that be great.”
Wikileaks has denied any contact with Roger Stone except for one message to tell him to stop contacting Assange. Remember we were told that Manafort met with Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in London where no proof of his visits were caught on the videos.
Mr. Trump is a conman.
He asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair, and to lie to his wife about it, which I did. Lying to the First Lady is one of my biggest regrets. She is a kind, good person. I respect her greatly – and she did not deserve that.I am giving the Committee today a copy of the $130,000 wire transfer from me to Ms. Clifford’s attorney during the closing days of the presidential campaign that was demanded by Ms. Clifford to maintain her silence about her affair with Mr. Trump. This is Exhibit 4 to my testimony.
Mr. Trump directed me to use my own personal funds from a Home Equity Line of Credit to avoid any money being traced back to him that could negatively impact his campaign. I did that, too – without bothering to consider whether that was improper, much less whether it was the right thing to do or how it would impact me, my family, or the public.
I am going to jail in part because of my decision to help Mr. Trump hide that payment from the American people before they voted a few days later.
As Exhibit 5 to my testimony shows, I am providing a copy of a $35,000 check that President Trump personally signed from his personal bank account on August 1, 2017 – when he was President of the United States – pursuant to the cover-up, which was the basis of my guilty plea, to reimburse me – the word used by Mr. Trump’s TV lawyer -- for the illegal hush money I paid on his behalf. This $35,000 check was one of 11 check installments that was paid throughout the year – while he was President.
The President of the United States thus wrote a personal check for the payment of hush money as part of a criminal scheme to violate campaign finance laws. You can find the details of that scheme, directed by Mr. Trump, in the pleadings in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
So picture this scene – in February 2017, one month into his presidency, I’m visiting President Trump in the Oval Office for the first time. It’s truly awe-inspiring, he’s showing me around and pointing to different paintings, and he says to me something to the effect of...Don’t worry, Michael, your January and February reimbursement checks are coming. They were Fed- Exed from New York and it takes a while for that to get through the White House system. As he promised, I received the first check for the reimbursement of $70,000 not long thereafter.
.
This is about John McCain.
During the campaign, Mr. Trump said he did not consider Vietnam Veteran, and Prisoner of War, Senator John McCain to be “a hero” because he likes people who weren’t captured. At the same time, Mr. Trump tasked me to handle the negative press surrounding his medical deferment from the Vietnam draft.
Mr. Trump claimed it was because of a bone spur, but when I asked for medical records, he gave me none and said there was no surgery. He told me not to answer the specific questions by reporters but rather offer simply the fact that he received a medical deferment.
He finished the conversation with the following comment. “You think I’m stupid, I wasn’t going to Vietnam.”
I find it ironic, President Trump, that you are in Vietnam right now. And yet, I continued to work for him.
Let's get to the part everyone is dying to know about. The Trump Tower meeting with the Russian lawyer. !
Questions have been raised about whether I know of direct evidence that Mr. Trump or his campaign colluded with Russia. I do not. I want to be clear. But, I have my suspicions.Sometime in the summer of 2017, I read all over the media that there had been a meeting in Trump Tower in June 2016 involving Don Jr. and others from the campaign with Russians, including a representative of the Russian government, and an email setting up the meeting with the subject line, “Dirt on Hillary Clinton.” Something clicked in my mind. I remember being in the room with Mr. Trump, probably in early June 2016, when something peculiar happened. Don Jr. came into the room and walked behind his father’s desk – which in itself was unusual. People didn’t just walk behind Mr. Trump’s desk to talk to him. I recalled Don Jr. leaning over to his father and speaking in a low voice, which I could clearly hear, and saying: “The meeting is all set.” I remember Mr. Trump saying, “Ok good...let me know.”
What struck me as I looked back and thought about that exchange between Don Jr. and his father was, first, that Mr. Trump had frequently told me and others that his son Don Jr. had the worst judgment of anyone in the world. And also, that Don Jr. would never set up any meeting of any significance alone – and certainly not without checking with his father.
I also knew that nothing went on in Trump world, especially the campaign, without Mr. Trump’s knowledge and approval. So, I concluded that Don Jr. was referring to that June 2016 Trump Tower meeting about dirt on Hillary with the Russian representative when he walked behind his dad’s desk that day -- and that Mr. Trump knew that was the meeting Don Jr. was talking about when he said, “That’s good...let me know.
Moscow Trump Tower Plans
In conversations we had during the campaign, at the same time I was actively negotiating in Russia for him, he would look me in the eye and tell me there’s no business in Russia and then go out and lie to the American people by saying the same thing. In his way, he was telling me to lie.
There were at least a half-dozen times between the Iowa Caucus in January 2016 and the end of June when he would ask me “How’s it going in Russia?” – referring to the Moscow Tower project.
You need to know that Mr. Trump’s personal lawyers reviewed and edited my statement to Congress about the timing of the Moscow Tower negotiations before I gave it.
To be clear: Mr. Trump knew of and directed the Trump Moscow negotiations throughout the campaign and lied about it. He lied about it because he never expected to win the election.
He also lied about it because he stood to make hundreds of millions of dollars on the Moscow real estate project.
And so I lied about it, too – because Mr. Trump had made clear to me, through his personal statements to me that we both knew were false and through his lies to the country, that he wanted me to lie. And he made it clear to me because his personal attorneys reviewed my statement before I gave it to Congress.
This about Trump's run for president.
Donald Trump is a man who ran for office to make his brand great, not to make our country great. He had no desire or intention to lead this nation – only to market himself and to build his wealth and power. Mr. Trump would often say, this campaign was going to be the “greatest infomercial in political history.”
He never expected to win the primary. He never expected to win the general election. The campaign – for him – was always a marketing opportunity.
I knew early on in my work for Mr. Trump that he would direct me to lie to further his business interests. I am ashamed to say, that when it was for a real estate mogul in the private sector, I considered it trivial. As the President, I consider it significant and dangerous.
Trump got a lot of help from his friend Hillary when she had the media focus almost solely on him and no other candidates. Including Bernie Sanders so Trump received $2 billion in free campaign coverage. Oops...
The statement ends with this:
I am not a perfect man. I have done things I am not proud of, and I will live with the consequences of my actions for the rest of my life.
But today, I get to decide the example I set for my children and how I attempt to change how history will remember me. I may not be able to change the past, but I can do right by the American people here today.
There is a lot more on the content of his statement that I recommend you read for yourselves. I have wondered all along if Mueller didn't find any evidence that Trump colluded with Vlad to win the election if he would just make some stuff up and nail Trump anyway. From what I've read about Stone and his saying that he had an in with Wikileaks or Assange that did not happen the way Cohen is saying it did. As far as the Russian Trump Tower deal, I read that Cohen was doing that on his own and that he never got farther than emailing someone in Russia to see if they were interested in building Trump Tower there. The person who received the emails barely remembers them.
Many people have been indicted for lying to the FBI and congress, but not everyone who has have been charged for it. Brennan comes most recently to mind. He lied about spying on us and for breaking into congress' computers during their torture investigations. He's walking free enough to spread his lies on MSDNC.
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Comments
If you're interested in the clown show
Here's a good wrap of it. I really don't understand why Cohen is going to testify to congress again about Trump since he admitted that he lied to them last time he did. And from what I read in his opening statement he is going to lie again if he sticks to that script. But of course the Russia Gaters are going to eat this up and demand Mueller say that yes indeedy Trump colluded with Vlad. And that it was definitely Russia that hacked the DNC computers.
THe Cohen CLown Show
Comment from this article:
Ditto.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
Amazing, isn’t it.
Absolutely amazing.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
I would like a clear distinction as to why the emails are
important for everything except their content. If the content was harmless, why would anyone hack them or care if they were released. The narrative from the heads would then be "if those emails had contained harmful information then....." It is as you said however, the content is treated as if it does not exist.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
MacGuffin
From urban dictionary:
From Wikipedia:
The emails were a fact, they were incriminating to the DNC and the Clinton campaign. They were not invented as a plot device. Once they were released by Wikileaks they were subsequently reinvented as a MacGuffin in the Russiagate narrative. Brilliant, really. Hidden in plain sight. Any damage to El Trumpo from the Russiagate narrative was secondary. The primary purpose was to distract from the mechanisms (perhaps legal, perhaps not) by which the DNC performs its assigned task of keeping left populists off the ballot.
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. The Great and Powerful Oz.
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone
DWS is questioning Cohen on election rigging
Tweet link
I can't embed it for some reason. Tried editing out the smiley face..
No one discussing what the emails that Wikileaks released is why Hillary blamed it on Russia that hacked the DNC computers. She and Podesta knew that would keep people from focusing on their content. And boy did it ever work.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
This is why we get our news on youtube from a comedian.
Michael Tracey and Matt Taibbi also hammer it home. One thing is right for sure. This is why we get our news on YouTube from a comedian.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
We got Bush news from comedians too
funny how that works, but then those comedians went on to bigger things and no longer critiqued the president...
Ok, here's one of my beefs with Cohen's testimony. You would think that if you had witnessed this game changing event and you had written it down on your testimony cheat sheet and then revised it numerous times you wouldn't have to read each word about the event from your statement.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
Lanny Davis,
close confidant and cohort of the clinton cabal is his lawyer.
You just can't make this shit up anymore.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
Mr. Trump is a conman!?!
Say it isn't so!
/s
I wonder what his stupid-beyond-all-comprehension base will think?
And yet ...
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone
Rachel weighs in on Cohen's testimony
Umm, what? Trump can't be prosecuted so he's going to resign so he doesn't have to face the criminal charges? Is that what she said? Oh boy!
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
Can you make Pelosi smaller please? lol
we came
we saw
we clapped
...
we white
Edit: Thank you! cheers
smaller still??
Any smaller and she disappears... oh wait, is that what you want?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
Another demonstration that
There's no honor among thieves.
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
When did Wikileaks say they were going to release Hillary's
emails? Two weeks before Stone said that they were going to. The whole world knew that they were going to release them and that's why Hillary and John Podesta cooked up the story about Russia hacking the DNC computers.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
The word salads of Darcy Wheeler on Democracy Now
The Wikileaks tweet you posted does in fact say "documents". But I did a search and it appears Assange personally was saying "emails would be released" way before Stone telling Trump. Here is a link to a Guardian article where Assange explicitly cites emails. Article is dated June 12, 2016. Stone told Trump about the release in late July of that year.
WikiLeaks to publish more Hillary Clinton emails - Julian Assange
After Marcy's brilliant deduction she went into a rambling word salad about Jermone Corsi and Randy Credico.
When Perry Mason Marcy went into "word salad mode" I had arrived thankfully at work. The Resistance has gone to semantic tricks to keep the conspiracy alive.
One thing Aaron Mate noted. When the Russiagates write or report, they always leave out what he called countervailing facts.
Wheeler..
Word salad indeed. Why people think that she is some type of expert on Russia Gate baffles me. Her ,disclosure' or disclaimer that she worked with the FBI is hilarious. "If you don't hear from me in awhile you'll know that something happened to me." lol
Moving the goalposts again. There's a meme on Twitter about moving them. I remember thinking that Wikileaks should release the stuff that they had on her before the primary ended so there were hints that Wikileaks had some damning stuff. Anyone else remember it that way?
Aaron has been putting out some great stuff. Did you read his article on the Nation? He destroys the narrative. Link in my comment above (I think). Here somewhere.
Thanks for listening to Perry Wheeler for us.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
Testimony in general
When asking a witness on direct examination a question, you ask who/what/where/when/why/how questions. When taking a witness on cross examination, you ask leading questions that can best or only be answered yes or no.
Witnesses, when sworn to tell the truth, are subject to impeachment under certain circumstances. We get ginned up on impeachment of presidents, thanks to Nixon, but impeachment of the credibility of the testimony of a witness is all about the trustworthiness of what is coming out of the mouths.
When you know they are a convicted felon, and when you know they have struck a deal to shorten their prison time by cooperating with the prosecutors, you are given 2 reasons to suspect they have self-serving reason to lie.
I might pick apart Cohen's actual testimony if anyone wants to hear it.
I found.....holes.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I definitely want to hear how you would do it
Please do. He said things today that shouldn't have been allowed because it was just his opinion of how he interpreted the things he heard and saw. From a conversation saying that Trump Jr was setting up a meeting he tied it to Russia? In the middle of campaigning for the presidency I would think that they would be setting up quite a few meetings. This part of his testimony was prejudicial and should have been stripped from his testimony. And I'm not a lawyer and I saw that.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
Yes please
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Holes
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Stone
on the phone...
hearsay.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
payment to porn star
Anybody can gift anybody else money for any or no reason.
The Deep State would have that call. Word for word.
And why would she not have asked for millions?
on the cusp would have.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Apparently Trump used campaign money to pay her
This is what Cohen is saying and he has checks to prove it. But let's make sure that no one says anything about Hillary's laundering $84 million which is definitely campaign finance fraud. Brock's Correct the Record skirted the law too and still no one has said anything about that.
Coherent's testimony review
Interesting take on what happened today. I like the part where he says that the democrats treated Cohen like a rockstar.
BTW. How can Cohen talk about the things that he and Trump spoke about in conference? I'm aware that privilege doesn't apply if someone broke the law, but who makes that decision?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
I am my client's attorney with mouth shut
Not sure about campaign laws, particularly at the federal level.
What is interesting is that you and I can transfer $1 from here to there, and it is easily tracked and obtainable by the government.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Bingo!
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Second payment
of $70,000 because the billionaire was short on cash?
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Viet Nam bone spur
My rich pal had a sudden problem with diabetes. His dad was on the draft board.
He hasn't had a problem with blood sugar since 1967.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Trump Tower
Jr. could go through any lines at any time to talk to daddy. Low voice, nevertheless overheard clearly by the man trying to stay out of prison.
Absolutely nothing to substantiate it involved Clinton/Russia/porn star/morning breakfast. The conclusions of the man going to prison might just be delusions.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Marketing
How as that different from actually winning and setting up a Clinton Foundation, or selling your story for a book?
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I don't understand what this article really means
but may be you do?
Why It Matters If Trump Knew About Stone's Contacts with WikiLeaks
Lemme know where there will be Assange's sanctuary. I like to send him some flowers, cookies and a lamp with day light simulation. The man is too pale and needs something nice to look at and nibble on some sweets. Sigh.
Sorry all of it is beyond my paygrade.
total garbage
Best to keep the government's crimes hidden I guess.
No hack. Leaked. Leak has been verified by ex NSA experts. If people were honest they would see that that statement from Trump was about the 30'000 emails that Hillary deleted instead of turning them over to congress as ordered. But then that would put the light back on Hillary and we can't have that.
Look at the Michael Tracey tweet above. See the dates.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
thx, I didn't want to allow myself to judge
before. I was amazed who the author was. Enough said, I guess.
That this woman has worked for the government
and in what departments raises a red flag. She will take the government's side on everything so I'd take her with a grain of salt.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
yes, that's what I tried to hint at /nt
I agree with snoopydawg
that Wikileaks had made it clear in advance that it would release emails damaging to Clinton, and that its intention to do so was public knowledge before Stone allegedly told Trump about it. Snoopydawg's links provide information on that sequence of events.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz attempts to cause Cohen to say Stone knew the release would have been of DNC emails, but he doesn't say that in his testimony nor in his opening statement. (WRONG. Please see my correction in a later comment.)
DWS and Cohen testimony:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIFUcuJ4Q4k
Cohen's opening statement passage:
Nice omission huh?
Interesting that tidbit has been skirted by everyone talking about the emails like maybe they were about something insignificant. Good point, Linda
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
Actually,
I need to correct my earlier comment that Cohen didn't say Trump knew in advance about the DNC emails. In his opening statement Cohen did say it:
Later in his opening statement Cohen said:
So Cohen did state that Trump knew in advance which emails were being released. But in his testimony to Debbie Wasserman Schultz, he said the following, which I transcribed from the video:
So Cohen contradicted his opening statement when he answered Wasserman Schultz, which is a real quandary.
It may be that he takes it as something everyone knows that the emails to be released were the DNC's, but when pressed by DWS he couldn't say that. But he's an experienced lawyer and liar, so he may have agreed to say one thing in his opening statement to satisfy Mueller but not to testify falsely under oath in response to that question to that person. Interesting.
Tyler Durden
at ZeroHedge expresses what the substance os Cohen's testimony amounted to: