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Two Republicans on the Home Intelligence Committee have really useful the Justice Division have a look at pursuing prices towards former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen for contradictory testimony he gave final month in former President Trump’s fraud trial in New York.
The prison referral letter — despatched by Home Intelligence Chair Mike Turner (R-Ohio) and committee member Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) — accuses Cohen of committing perjury and having “knowingly made false statements” earlier than the congressional panel 4 years in the past.
“That Mr. Cohen was keen to overtly and openly state at trial that he lied to Congress on this particular challenge is startling,” the referral letter reads. “His willingness to make such an announcement alone ought to necessitate an investigation.”
Whereas it urges prosecutors to take motion, a prison referral is basically symbolic and doesn’t maintain any authorized weight. The Hill has reached out to Cohen’s lawyer for remark.
Amid cross-examination by Trump’s authorized workforce late final month, Cohen testified that he lied underneath oath to the Home Intelligence Committee in February 2019 when requested concerning the former president’s private monetary statements throughout a deposition.
In that 2019 testimony, the previous president’s longtime lawyer and fixer mentioned Trump didn’t ask him to inflate the numbers detailed in his statements of economic situation — paperwork that element the worth of the Trump Group’s numerous property.
However in New York final month, Cohen advised state attorneys that Trump did direct him and former Trump Group CFO Allen Weisselberg to “reverse engineer” the previous president’s property “to be able to obtain the quantity that Trump had tasked us with.”
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Alina Habba, considered one of Trump’s attorneys, tore into Cohen over the discrepancy throughout cross-examination.
“Mr. Cohen, had been you being trustworthy in entrance of the Everlasting Choose Committee while you testified on Feb. 28, 2019?” Habba requested.
“No,” Cohen replied.
“So that you lied underneath oath in February of 2019? Is that your testimony?” Habba pressed.
“Sure,” Cohen mentioned.
After the cross-examination, Cohen attempted to clarify his feedback by claiming Trump “speaks like a mob boss” and “inform(s) you with out particularly telling you” what to do. He additionally accused Trump’s authorized workforce of “cherry-picking” his testimony to pigeonhole him into contradicting himself. Cohen’s “mob boss” remark is similar to the remarks he made throughout his congressional testimony in 2019.
Stefanik mentioned in an announcement Tuesday that the “Biden Justice Division should take off its partisan blinders and examine disgraced fraudster and disbarred lawyer Michael Cohen.”
It’s the second time in as many weeks that Stefanik, the Home Republican Convention chair, has sought to defend Trump amid his civil fraud trial in New York. Final week, she filed an ethics complaint against the decide overseeing the trial, accusing him of “inappropriate bias and judicial intemperance.” The case is considered one of a number of Trump is combating as he seeks to once more turn out to be the GOP’s presidential nominee subsequent 12 months.
The sprawling trial through which Cohen testified includes Trump, the Trump Group and several other executives, together with the previous president’s grownup sons. New York Legal professional Normal Letitia James (D) sued them final 12 months, claiming the enterprise falsely inflated and deflated the worth of its property to obtain decrease taxes and higher insurance coverage protection.
Trump’s private monetary statements — and skewed numbers inside them — are on the coronary heart of the lawyer basic’s case. The paperwork had been despatched to banks and ensurers to safe loans and offers, which the state asserts is proof of fraud.
Choose Arthur Engoron dominated that James had proved the crux of her case earlier than the trial started, discovering the Trumps and their enterprise chargeable for fraud. The choice stripped a few of Trump’s enterprise licenses and put a number of iconic Trump properties in danger, although an appeals court docket paused the cancellation of the licenses till it hears the previous president’s case.
Cohen was beforehand convicted on eight prices, together with tax evasion and marketing campaign finance violations. He was sentenced to 3 years in jail however earned early launch because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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