Michael Cohen, President Trump’s longtime former personal lawyer and fixer, will tell congressional panels in testimony this week on Capitol Hill that the president engaged in criminal conduct and will detail his ex-boss’ “lies, racism and cheating,” according to two reports Tuesday.
Cohen, who once said he would “take a bullet for Trump,” will appear before three committees over the next three days — two of them in closed session and one publicly.
At the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, Cohen is expected to focus on his “behind the scenes” accounts of working for 10 years for Trump and make public some of Trump’s financial statements that claim he manipulated his net worth to avoid paying personal property taxes, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.
As part of that, Cohen is expected to recall instances in which Trump inflated his income to get on the Forbes list of richest people but lowball his income when it came to paying real estate taxes, the reports said.
He will also offer “very specific details” to lawmakers on the House panel about arranging hush-money payments to a porn star and a former Playboy Playmate to keep them quiet about affairs they said they had with Trump.
At the hearing, he is expected to “provide more detail about his lies to Congress,” according to the Washington Post, and relate that he told special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators that Trump directed him to lie.
He will also testify about racist comments Trump made to him, including questioning the intelligence of African-Americans and criticizing their lifestyle choices, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The White House dismissed Cohen’s testimony, claiming it wasn’t credible.
“Disgraced felon Michael Cohen is going to prison for lying to Congress and making other false statements,” spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. “Sadly, he will go before Congress this week and we can expect more of the same. 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, accompanied by media adviser Lanny Davis, arrived on Tuesday for his closed-door appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
On Wednesday he will testify before the House Oversight Committee in what could be an explosive open session.
He’ll follow that up with testimony before the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday behind closed doors.
Cohen pleaded guilty to tax evasion, making false statements to a bank, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress.
He paid off porn star Stormy Daniels and Playmate Karen McDougal shortly before the 2016 election.
Cohen is scheduled to report to prison on May 6 to begin serving his three-year sentence.