WASHINGTON – House Intelligence Committee Chairman Michael Turner has asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Michael Cohen after Donald Trump’s former “fixer” admitted in an ongoing civil fraud trial that He lied to Congress.
Cohen, the 77-year-old former president’s former lawyer, served a three-year prison sentence for lying to the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2017 about a real estate project in Moscow and other crimes, and Turner (R-Ohio) says his last The admitted falsehood dating back to 2019 may justify another prosecution.
Cohen testified at Trump’s fraud trial in New York on October 25 that he “yes” lied to the House panel in February 2019 (a crime punishable by up to five years in prison) when he said Trump did not ask him that inflated his personal money. Financial statements.
Under oath before the committee, Cohen said: “Did you ask me to inflate the numbers? Not that I remember, no,” before testifying in court last month that Trump had done just that.
“Mr. Cohen, were you honest in front of the Permanent Select Committee when you testified? [in] February… 2019?” Trump attorney Alina Habba asked Cohen in the civil fraud case.
“No,” Cohen said.
Michael Cohen served a three-year prison sentence for lying to the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2017.AP
“So you lied under oath in February 2019? Is that your testimony? Habba pressed.
“Yes,” Cohen responded.
“Sir, Cohen’s testimony at the New York trial is inconsistent with his testimony before the Committee,” Turner wrote in a letter to Garland that was co-signed by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), chairwoman of the Republican Conference. of the House of Representatives.
“That Mr. Cohen was willing to openly and brazenly testify at trial that he lied to Congress about this specific issue is astonishing.”
“Sir. Cohen’s testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on February 28, 2019 is contradicted by his recent testimony on October 25, 2023. Mr. Cohen’s prior conviction for lying to Congress deserves heightened suspicion that he has once again testified falsely before Congress,” Turner and Stefanik wrote.
“Therefore, we request that the Department investigate whether any of Mr. Cohen’s testimony warrants another charge for violation of 18 USC §§ 1001 or 1621.”
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to the Post’s request for comment.
Cohen, now 57, told The Post that the issue is not as simple as Turner and Stefanik suggest.
Turner says Cohen’s latest admitted lie dating back to 2019 may warrant another prosecution.REUTERS
“I’m not concerned at all about his application,” the disbarred lawyer said in a telephone interview. “They are mischaracterizing what happened.”
In a later written statement, Cohen said he testified “accurately” before Congress in 2019 because Trump typically made his wishes known in general, not specifics.
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“Stefanik and Turner continue to do Donald’s bidding in witness tampering and obstruction of justice,” he wrote.
“The two members fail to understand the distinction between explicit and implicit; This is how the question was asked and answered precisely. The issue was further clarified with several questions thereafter, which is conveniently and intentionally ignored.”
The 2019 intelligence committee transcript shows that Cohen testified that Trump expressed interest in moving up the Forbes 400 rich list, which Cohen interpreted as a request to provide the magazine with inflated financial information.
At last month’s trial, Cohen accurately said: “Mr. Trump tasked me with increasing total assets based on a number he arbitrarily chose…and my responsibility, along with that of [then-Trump Organization CFO] “Allen Weisselberg mainly did reverse engineering.”
Cohen broke bitterly with Trump in 2018 and pleaded guilty that year to lying to Congress as part of a broader set of charges that included tax fraud. He served much of his sentence in house arrest due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trump is the favorite for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and the civil fraud trial is the first major judicial episode of the campaign, which will also include four criminal trials against Trump for alleged crimes related to silence, mishandling of classified documents and attempts to reverse the process. 2020 election results.
It is rare for public figures to be prosecuted for lying to Congress, and some high-profile officials have managed to avoid charges of perjury altogether.
They include former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who testified in 2013 that the feds were “inadvertently” collecting massive data on Americans, before whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed the collection of phone and Internet data.
Clapper said at the time that he had given the “least disingenuous” answer he could.
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