Cohen To Spill The Beans

[Shabibilicious]

Cohen prepared testimony: Trump is 'racist,' 'liar,' 'cheat'

MARY CLARE JALONICK and MICHAEL R. SISAK

,

Associated Press•February 27, 2019

 

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer is preparing to tell a House committee Wednesday that Trump knew ahead of time that WikiLeaks had emails damaging to his rival Hillarious Clinton's presidential campaign and that he is a "racist," a "conman" and a "cheat."

Michael Cohen suggests in prepared testimony obtained by The Associated Press that Trump also implicitly told him to lie about a Moscow real estate project. Cohen has pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the project, which he says Trump knew about as Cohen was negotiating with Russia during the election.

Cohen says Trump did not directly tell him to lie, but that "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."

Cohen said that "in his way, he was telling me to lie."

In the testimony, Cohen apologizes for his actions and says "I am ashamed that I chose to take part in concealing Mr. Trump's illicit acts rather than listening to my own conscience."

On WikiLeaks, Cohen says he was in Trump's office in July 2016 when his longtime adviser Roger Stone called Trump. He says Trump put Stone on speakerphone and Stone said that "within a couple of days, there would be a massive dump of emails that would damage Hillarious Clinton's campaign."

Trump responded by saying "wouldn't that be great," according to Cohen.

"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," Cohen says in the testimony. "The answer is yes."

Cohen also says that Trump made racist comments about African-Americans, saying at one point that black people would never vote for him because they were too stupid. Cohen says that he and Trump once drove through a struggling neighborhood in Chicago and that Trump remarked that only black people could live that way.

He also says Trump once asked him to name a country run by a black person that wasn't falling apart, though he says Trump used a vulgarism. At the time Barack Obama was America's president.

Looking ahead to his public testimony, Cohen said Tuesday that the American people can decide "exactly who is telling the truth" when he appears Wednesday before the House Oversight and Reform committee, setting the stage for an explosive public hearing that threatens to overshadow Trump's summit in Vietnam with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Cohen, once Trump's loyal attorney and fixer, has turned on his former boss and cooperated with special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. He begins a three-year prison sentence in May after he pleaded guilty to lying to Congress in 2017 and committing campaign finance violations while he was working for Trump.

He met with the Senate intelligence committee for more than nine hours behind closed doors on Tuesday. Cohen said he appreciated the opportunity to "clear the record and tell the truth" after acknowledging he lied to the committee in 2017.

It was the first of three consecutive days of congressional appearances for Cohen. After the public hearing Wednesday, he will appear before the House intelligence panel Thursday, again speaking in private.

Republicans are expected to aggressively attempt to discredit Cohen, given that he has acknowledged lying previously. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement Tuesday it was "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."

One Republican House member did more than just question Cohen's credibility. Florida Republican Matt Gaetz tweeted Tuesday that the world is "about to learn a lot" about Cohen and suggested he knew of disparaging information that could come out during the hearing. The Trump ally offered no evidence to support his remarks and waved off the notion that he appeared to be threatening or intimidating a witness.

After a barrage of criticism, Gaetz apologized and said he was deleting the tweet and should have chosen better words to show his intent.

Lanny Davis, one of Cohen's lawyers, said in a statement that he wouldn't respond to 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."

 

Democrats have been alternately suspicious of Cohen and eager to hear what he has to say. Sen. Mark Warner, the intelligence panel's top Democrat, suggested in a brief statement to reporters outside Tuesday's interview that Cohen had provided important information.

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

In addition to lying to Congress, Cohen pleaded guilty last year to campaign finance violations for his involvement in payments to two women who allege they had affairs with Trump.

Federal prosecutors in New York have said Trump directed Cohen to arrange the payments to buy the silence of porn actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal in the run-up to the 2016 campaign. Cohen told a judge that he agreed to cover up Trump's "dirty deeds" out of "blind loyalty."

In his prepared testimony, Cohen says he will present the committee with a copy of the check Trump wrote from his personal bank account after he became president to reimburse him for the hush money payments.

Trump has denied the allegations and said Cohen lied to get a lighter sentence.

Cohen is not expected to discuss matters related to Russia in the public hearing, saving that information for the closed-door interviews with the intelligence committees. House Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah Cummings has said he doesn't want to interfere with Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and links to Trump's campaign.

Members of the Oversight panel are expected to ask questions about the campaign finance violations, Trump's business practices and compliance with tax laws and "the accuracy of the president's public statements," according to a memo laying out the scope of the hearing.

 

https://news.yahoo.com/cohen-kick-off-week-interviews-senate-committee-052405901--politics.html

 

It's completely laughable for those Right wingers to say Cohen has no credibility as they continue to enable Trump, the man who employed Cohen for over a decade to lie and provide cover for his own lies and misdeeds.

 

GO RV, then BV 

[Shabibilicious]

Politics

Michael Cohen: Trump sent letters to his schools threatening them not to release his test scores

 Tom Embury-Dennis,The Independent 4 hours ago 

 

Mr Cohen, the US president’s former lawyer and personal fixer, will tell the House oversight and reform committee on Wednesday how his then client directed him to send letters warning Mr Trump’s schools against releasing his grades.

The revelation is part of a larger picture Mr Cohen plans to sketch of Mr Trump as “a racist, a conman, and a cheat” who, he will claim, knew his campaign was communicating with WikiLeaks in order to damage his 2016 presidential rival Hillarious Clinton.

“When I say conman, I’m talking about a man who declares himself brilliant but directed me to threaten his high school, his colleges, and the College Board to never release his grades or SAT scores,” Mr Cohen will say, according to a transcript first obtained by the New York Times.

“As I mentioned, I’m giving the committee today copies of a letter I sent at Mr Trump’s direction threatening these schools with civil and criminal actions if Mr Trump’s grades or SAT scores were ever disclosed without his permission.”

He will continue: “The irony wasn’t lost on me at the time that Mr Trump in 2011 had strongly criticized President Obama for not releasing his grades.”

Mr Trump branded Barack Obama a “terrible student” in an interview nine years ago with the Associated Press, in which he pressured the former president to release his academic records.

Mr Cohen, who once said he would take a bullet for Mr Trump, will tell lawmakers how he is “ashamed” over his efforts to “protect and promote” his former boss.

“I am ashamed because I know what Mr Trump is. He is a racist. He is a conman. He is a cheat,” he will say.

“He was a presidential candidate who knew that Roger Stone was talking with Julian Assange about a WikiLeaks drop of Democratic National Committee emails.”

Last summer, Cohen pleaded guilty to charges of tax evasion, bank fraud, and campaign finance violations in relation to hush money payments made to two women, Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, on the eve of the 2016 election.

He also pleaded guilty to a separate charge by brought by Robert Mueller’s office that he lied to Congress about discussions over the construction of a proposed Trump Organisation skyscraper in Moscow – referred to in court documents as the “Moscow Project”.

He was sentenced to three years in jail and is due to start his sentence shortly.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/michael-cohen-trump-sent-letters-092112093.html

 

GO RV, then BV

[coorslite21]

Should be interesting!

 

CL

[coorslite21]

It is interesting that this Congress led by the Democrats are willing to use as their star witness an individual that was tried....and found guilty of lying to Congress.....as a source to try to discredit Trump.     CL

[jg1]

In one word, "DISCUSTING".

The American people see whats happening here and what has been happening since Mr. Trump has become president. The colution is with muller and the democrat party. Hillarious pays for the steel dosier, it gets investigated by muller and his partisan team. They investigate every person connected with trump, not so much for Russian collution but for crimes they have committed. They then use this as leverage to minimize jail time for dirt on the president. 

Now, why is cowen going to jail!

Haven't heard him fess up to that. How about, not paying taxes, lieing to congress. 

So what, the president paid a good looking hooker money to keep her mouth shut and she couldnt do it cuz she wanted to be a star and get more money. Not a impeahable offense.

While the real criminals go free, for now Hillarious, comey, mc cabe obamma. Sickening.

 

Edited February 27, 2019 by jg1

[Karsten]

I have been watching it for awhile and what a joke......Cohen taking the high road after all these years and jumping on his sword. Playing the Poor Victim of his own disgusting chooses and now all of the sudden he wants to do the right thing.....

 

Ya Right.....Lie enough and we will see to it that we get the Prison Sentence reduced...

 

More waste of Tax Payer Monies while the Criminals are running lose in both Congress as well as the clinto's, obama, lynch, comey, mccabe, holder, mueller and the rest.

 

Karsten

[Shabibilicious]

57 minutes ago, coorslite21 said:

It is interesting that this Congress led by the Democrats are willing to use as their star witness an individual that was tried....and found guilty of lying to Congress.....as a source to try to discredit Trump.     CL

 

It's not really all that interesting when you consider he still worked for Trump for over a decade.  So that fact alone proves one of two things.....Trump is either a terrible judge of character, and didn't have the pulse of his own private empire in check....or he employed Cohen for exactly what Cohen is claiming....Either way, it proves DJT is woefully unfit to be pOTUS.  As always, just my opinion.

 

10 plus years of employment.......that says it all, there is no way around it.

 

GO RV, then BV 

[nstoolman1]

Or Cohen is lying again to save his own arse. 

[new york kevin]

1 hour ago, coorslite21 said:

It is interesting that this Congress led by the Democrats are willing to use as their star witness an individual that was tried....and found guilty of lying to Congress.....as a source to try to discredit Trump.     CL

That is exactly what makes his testimony interesting.  Some clips on Conservative Tribune said Cohen produced a $35k check for hush money on Trumps sex sandals.  But it didn't ref that fact. Cohen was on a retainer for 1. Trump never forced himself on anyone, rape, like WJ Clinton. In the world of celebrities,  which Trump was one, prior to being elected POTUS, many who can afford it would prefer to payoff a nuisance law suit with $200k than dispute the suit. Its easier. Which is why Non Disclosure agreements are entered into. These are not illegal anywhere in the US. Everyone lies, not all lies are criminal. Unless you lie on say loan applications, then those lies become criminal fraud. Trump never denied looking into the possibility of developing a hotel property inside Russia, he admitted it. It just never panned out. Putin and the oligarchs probably wanted to much in the form of bribes, or you can call it developmental costs of doing business in Russia. Dems and HRC staffers and Law Firms also met with Russian operatives and English Double Agents to obtain Opposition Research on Trump. Also not a crime. Untill said Op Research was used to start an illegal Federal Investigation into  a Republican Candidate for POTUS , crime #2. Crime #1 was using said Dem Op Research and getting your cronies at the Head of the FBI and DOJ to present said research to the FISA Court Judges as verified intelligence when it was still unverified op research and lies. Many Dems and Republican sympathizers need to be investigated and jailed for lying to the FISA Court Judges and for lying to Congress and the Senate at the very minimum. 

[bostonangler]

Whatever.... Which liar are we going to believe??? Personally I think they both should and will, be locked up.

 

B/A

Edited February 27, 2019 by bostonangler

[Shabibilicious]

18 minutes ago, bostonangler said:

Whatever.... Which liar are we going to believe??? Personally I think they both should and will, be locked up.

 

B/A

 

Why the one that duped almost half of the voting population, of course......It tastes better than crow, after all.  

 

GO RV, then BV

[nstoolman1]

17 minutes ago, bostonangler said:

Whatever.... Which liar are we going to believe??? Personally I think they both should and will, be locked up.

 

B/A

Then they all should be locked up. I know you would be o.k. with that but you seem to think Indies would be better.
I personally don't trust Indies one bit because they waffle and blow in the wind. You never know from minute to minute what they stand for. 

They don't stand for anything and fall for everything.

[bostonangler]

6 minutes ago, nstoolman1 said:

Then they all should be locked up. I know you would be o.k. with that but you seem to think Indies would be better.
I personally don't trust Indies one bit because they waffle and blow in the wind. You never know from minute to minute what they stand for. 

They don't stand for anything and fall for everything.

 

I know, but how can we trust the incumbents? We know they are worthless.

 

B/A

[jg1]

14 minutes ago, nstoolman1 said:

Then they all should be locked up. I know you would be o.k. with that but you seem to think Indies would be better.
I personally don't trust Indies one bit because they waffle and blow in the wind. You never know from minute to minute what they stand for. 

They don't stand for anything and fall for everything.

 Then they all should be locked up🤤

Including the FBI, DOJ, Hillarious, obamma, ect, ect, ect. 

[Shabibilicious]

 

GO RV, then BV

[MyLadiesDaddy]

2 hours ago, coorslite21 said:

It is interesting that this Congress led by the Democrats are willing to use as their star witness an individual that was tried....and found guilty of lying to Congress.....as a source to try to discredit Trump.     CL

Something that has never happened before in the history of Congress.

Anyone placing hope in this guy after just one day of testimony is either lying to themselves or delusional. Even Debbie Wasserman Schultz cornered his  but.

 

 

 

[MyLadiesDaddy]

Mr. Cohen just committed another felony by denying that he ever wanted a high-level position in the White House. The southern district of New York court system in their sentencing papers against Cohen not only say that he did want a high-level position in the white house but they had text messages to prove it.

 

 

[MyLadiesDaddy]

 

[MyLadiesDaddy]

And this is what your hopes are in Shabbs?This idiot couldn't even get out of the Senate hearing meetings before charges were being issued on him for lying again.

 

 

[MyLadiesDaddy]

 

[Shabibilicious]

7 minutes ago, ladyGrace'sDaddy said:

And this is what your hopes are in Shabbs?This idiot couldn't even get out of the Senate hearing meetings before charges were being issued on him for lying again.

 

 

 

 

You probably should have laid off twitter and watched instead, brother......Meadows got corrected hard.  No surprise he was all knee jerk and no substance.  I feel somewhat bad for pointing it out to you, as I'm sure in your exceptionally practiced due-diligence, you would have discovered it on your own.   

Republican attack on Cohen over paperwork falls flat

 

Christopher Wilson

Editor

Yahoo News•February 27, 2019

 

acts

Yahoo News Video

Scroll back up to restore default view.

Attempting to discredit Michael Cohen’s testimony to the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Mark Meadows accused him of lying on a form he filled out in preparation for his appearance Wednesday.

But Meadows’s questions appeared to be based on a misreading of the congressional Truth in Testimony form.

Meadows, a Republican from North Carolina, attempted to prove that Cohen, President Trump’s former attorney, had perjured himself by omitting from the form work he had done with foreign businesses while working for Trump. Meadows brought it up earlier in the hearing and again when time was yielded to him.

“Mr. Cohen, I’m going to come back to the question I asked before with regards to your false statement you submitted to Congress,” said Meadows. “On here it was very clear that it asked for contracts with foreign entities over the last two years. Have you had any foreign contract with foreign entities?”

“I believe it talks about lobbying. I did no lobbying,” said Cohen. “They are not governments.”

Meadows became incensed, asking Cohen why he hadn’t put his dealings with foreign companies on the form, saying it was a criminal offense to leave them off. After an extended back-and-forth, Cohen said he would double-check the forms, and Meadows said, “It’s just one more example of you skirting the truth.”

 

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., questions Michael Cohen, former attorney and fixer for President Trump, as he testifies Wednesday before the House Oversight Committee. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

But Meadows’s attack was apparently based on a misreading of the Truth in Testimony form, which reads in part, "If you are a non-governmental witness, please list any contracts or payments originating with a foreign government and related to the hearing's subject matter that you or the organization(s) you represent at this hearing received in the current year and previous two calendar years." Cohen qualifies as a nongovernmental witness, and even Meadows conceded he had no contracts with a foreign government.

A few minutes later, Rep. Katie Hill, D-Calif., pointed out Meadows’s error.

“I want to mention really quick a clarification on the Truth in Testimony form,” said Hill. “The mention was around whether it talks about foreign entities at all, and the question is in fact whether witnesses have any contracts or payments originating with a foreign government. It does not cover all foreign entities, just foreign government entities. So Mr. Cohen, what I’d like to ask you to do is review this issue over lunch with your attorneys, and if you need to amend your form we ask that you do that before the conclusion of today’s hearing.”

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, turned to face Meadows after Hill’s statement, and a camera caught Meadows winking at him.

There is a history of Trump associates filling out government forms incorrectly. Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and a White House adviser, has had to repeatedly update his forms to the point that the director of the government’s background check bureau said he had “never seen that level of mistakes.” Three months after those remarks, even more errors were reported. Earlier this year, the Office of Government Ethics ruled that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had violated his ethics agreement by making errors on his 2018 financial disclosure forms.

 

https://news.yahoo.com/republican-attack-on-cohen-over-paperwork-falls-flat-191506454.html

 

GO RV, then BV

[Karsten]

Humm,

 

Jim Jordan nailed him when he asked about Cohen Expecting to get appointed to a high position in the W.H.   and Cohen denied that.....Then Jordan came out the the Truth from back in 2016 when Cohen had bragged to friends about his up coming job........He never got it.

 

Then the dem's have hit the bottom of the barrel asking Cohen about the Golden Showers Sex Tape from Russia.......Taken from the Steel Dossier that everyone knows was a hit job paid for by clinton.......dems trying to get him to lie about a lie to start with?

 

Then another wanted to know about the Tape in the Elevator showing Trump hitting Melania.....More fake news on something that never happened and no one could come up with the tape even thought it was said to be up for sale.

 

Karsten

 

 

[bostonangler]

11 minutes ago, Shabibilicious said:

You probably should have laid off twitter

 

I've been telling him for weeks to put the twitter down... He's addicted to social media just like a teenager... Oh and our president too!!!   LOL

 

 

B/A

[Shabibilicious]

Funny how Republicans, convinced Cohen is a liar beyond redemption with zero credibility, suddenly believe him to be truthful when a question such as:....Does a tape exist of Trump smacking Melania in an elevator?.....and Cohen says not that I'm aware of one and Mr Trump would never do that.  

 

GO RV, then BV

[Shabibilicious]

Politics

Michael Cohen says Trump had no medical excuse to avoid military draft: ‘You think I’m stupid? I wasn’t going to Vietnam’

Chris Riotta,The Independent 6 hours ago 

Michael Cohen released his prepared remarks before a public testimony on Capitol Hill in which he was due to detail Donald Trump’s alleged lies, corruption and criminal conduct throughout the 2016 presidential election.

Among those explosive claims — Cohen will say Mr Trump “was a presidential candidate who knew that Roger Stone was talking with Julian Assange about a WikiLeaks drop of Democratic National Committee emails” — include the president telling his former attorney there was no real medical excuse behind his military deferral during the Vietnam War.

“Mr Trump tasked me to handle the negative press surrounding his medical deferment from the Vietnam draft,“ Cohen said in his prepared remarks on Wednesday. “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 added.

The remarkable decision by Cohen to expose the president’s supposed crimes and wrongdoings reflects an incredible reversal from one of Mr Trump’s closest former confidants who previously said he would defend his ex-boss until the very end.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders came out in defence against Mr Trump ahead of Cohen’s public testimony, calling him a “disgraced felon” and noting he “is going to prison for lying to Congress”.

“Sadly, he will go before Congress this week and we can expect more of the same,“ she said. ”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.”

Cohen was scheduled to meet with the Democratic-controlled House Oversight Committee on Wednesday during a three-day appearance on Capitol Hill.

Mr Trump has previously received scrutiny over his deferral from the Vietnam War, with dubious claims he suffered bone spurs at the time never having been held up by verifiable facts or evidence.

“You think I’m stupid, I wasn’t going to Vietnam,” Cohen said the president told him.

Mr Trump reportedly told The Times in 2016 his bone spurs “healed up” over “a period of time”.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/michael-cohen-says-trump-had-142013160.html

 

GO RV, then BV