WASHINGTON — Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, is testifying today before the House Oversight Committee, but much is already known about what he will say.
In his opening remarks, he calls Trump a “racist,” a “conman,” and a “cheat,” and he also suggests that his client instructed him to lie about the timing of negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. But Cohen does not say Trump directly instructed him.
In the remarks, Cohen says, “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.”
Cohen has pled guilty to lying to Congress about the timing of the Trump Tower negotiations. He originally downplayed the talks and said they ended in January 2016, when in fact they continued well into that year’s presidential campaign.
Republicans are likely to attack Cohen’s credibility. He is scheduled to start a prison sentence in May, after pleading guilty to tax and campaign finance charges.
In the Rayburn House office building, media and spectators flooded the hallway outside the hearing room. Cohen himself arrived about an hour before its scheduled start.
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