The former personal lawyer to President Donald Trump has described his former boss as a racist, a conman and a cheat in explosive testimony before the House Oversight Committee.
In hours long testimony before lawmakers from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, Michael Cohen spoke at length about the President’s character, confirmed that Trump knew in advance about stolen emails that would hurt his presidential opponent during the 2016 campaign but said he had no direct evidence that Trump colluded with Russia to bolster his Presidential ambitions during the 2016 campaign.
Cohen, who will from May this year spend up to three years in jail for financial crimes and for previously lying to Congress, came to correct the record and he wasn’t holding back on his former boss.
“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.”
Cohen said there was something odd about the President’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin but stopped short of confirming any collusion.
But he did admit that he earlier lied about the then candidate’s business dealings with Russia, confirming that Trump directed negotiations for a real estate project in Moscow even while he was publicly denying any business dealing with Russia during the campaign, and this revelation about hacked email during the 2016 campaign.
“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.”
Republican lawmakers continually tried to undermine Cohen’s credibility as a witness portraying him as an irredeemable liar who is tarnishing the President’s image only because he got caught out for his own crimes. Cohen was undeterred.
“Mr. Trump is a racist. The country has seen Mr. Trump court white supremacists and bigots. You have heard him call poorer countries “shitholes.” In private, he is even worse. He once asked me if I could name a country run by a black person that wasn’t a “shithole.” This was when Barack Obama was President of the United States. While we were once driving through a struggling neighbourhood in Chicago, he commented that only black people could live that way. And, he told me that black people would never vote for him because they were too stupid. And yet I continued to work for him.”
Cohen was once one of Mr Trump’s closest confidants and fiercest defenders for 10-years but turned against the President after being caught up in the special counsel’s probe, later pleading guilty to a variety of financial crimes while cooperating with prosecutors.
