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Michael Cohen Opening Statement - Oversight Committee - 02.27.19 PDF
Michael Cohen Opening Statement - Oversight Committee - 02.27.19 PDF
COHEN
COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND REFORM
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
pertaining to ongoing investigations. Thank you for your help and for your
understanding.
questions truthfully, and to offer the American people what I know about
President Trump.
is for this reason that I have incorporated into this opening statement
documents that are irrefutable, and demonstrate that the information you
work for Donald Trump, that he would one day run for President, launch a
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campaign on a platform of hate and intolerance, and actually win. I regret
the day I said “yes” to Mr. Trump. I regret all the help and support I gave
I am ashamed that I chose to take part in concealing Mr. Trump’s illicit acts
He is a racist.
He is a conman.
He is a cheat.
He was a presidential candidate who knew that Roger Stone was talking
Committee emails.
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I will explain each in a few moments.
include:
the bidder ahead of time and then reimbursed the bidder from the
his high school, colleges, and the College Board not to release his
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I hope my appearance here today, my guilty plea, and my work with law
enforcement agencies are steps along a path of redemption that will restore
***
a whole.
The last time I appeared before Congress, I came to protect Mr. Trump.
I lied to Congress about when Mr. Trump stopped negotiating the Moscow
2016. That was false – our negotiations continued for months later during
the campaign.
Mr. Trump did not directly tell me to lie to Congress. That’s not how he
operates.
actively negotiating in Russia for him, he would look me in the eye and tell
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me there’s no business in Russia and then go out and lie to the American
people by saying the same thing. In his way, he was telling me to lie.
January 2016 and the end of June when he would ask me “How’s it going
You need to know that Mr. Trump’s personal lawyers reviewed and edited
negotiations throughout the campaign and lied about it. He lied about it
And so 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. And he made it
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clear to me because his personal attorneys reviewed my statement before I
gave it to Congress.
****
Over the past two years, I have been smeared as “a rat” by the President of
the United States. The truth is much different, and let me take a brief
and son. When I married my wife, I promised her that I would love her,
cherish her, and protect her. As my father said countless times throughout
my childhood, “you my wife, and you my children, are the air that I breathe.”
protect you.
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That is why my first instinct has always been to help those in need. Mom
As many people that know me best would say, I am the person they would
call at 3AM if they needed help. I proudly remember being the emergency
because their parents knew that I would drop everything and care for them
Yet, last fall I pled guilty in federal court to felonies for the benefit of, at the
more painful to admit that many times I ignored my conscience and acted
loyal to a man when I should not have. Sitting here today, it seems
***
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Accordingly, let me now tell you about Mr. Trump.
I got to know him very well, working very closely with him for more than 10
years, as his Executive Vice President and Special Counsel and then
personal attorney when he became President. When I first met Mr. Trump,
around Mr. Trump was intoxicating. When you were in his presence, you
felt like you were involved in something greater than yourself -- that you
I wound up touting the Trump narrative for over a decade. That was my job.
transactions. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Trump brought me into his personal life
and private dealings. Over time, I saw his true character revealed.
bad, as do we all. But the bad far outweighs the good, and since taking
fundamentally disloyal.
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Donald Trump is a man who ran for office to make his brand great, not to
make our country great. He had no desire or intention to lead this nation –
only to market himself and to build his wealth and power. Mr. Trump would
political history.”
opportunity.
I knew early on in my work for Mr. Trump that he would direct me to lie to
further his business interests. I am ashamed to say, that when it was for a
But in the mix, lying for Mr. Trump was normalized, and no one around him
questioned it. In fairness, no one around him today questions it, either.
A lot of people have asked me about whether Mr. Trump knew about the
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As I earlier stated, Mr. Trump knew from Roger Stone in advance about the
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
Mr. Trump is a racist. The country has seen Mr. Trump court white
supremacists and bigots. You have heard him call poorer countries
“shitholes.”
wasn’t a “shithole.” This was when Barack Obama was President of the
United States.
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While we were once driving through a struggling neighborhood in Chicago,
And, he told me that black people would never vote for him because they
Deutsche Bank to inquire about a loan to buy the Buffalo Bills and to
It was my experience that Mr. Trump inflated his total assets when it served
Forbes, and deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes.
I am sharing with you two newspaper articles, side by side, that are
examples of Mr. Trump inflating and deflating his assets, as I said, to suit
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As I noted, I’m giving the Committee today an article he wrote on, and sent
3A to my testimony.
that was being auctioned at an Art Hamptons Event. The objective was to
ensure that his portrait, which was going to be auctioned last, would go for
the highest price of any portrait that afternoon. The portrait was purchased
by the fake bidder for $60,000. Mr. Trump directed the Trump Foundation,
despite keeping the art for himself. Please see Exhibit 3B to my testimony.
many of whom were small businesses, that were owed money for their
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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
I am giving the Committee today a copy of the $130,000 wire transfer from
campaign that was demanded by Ms. Clifford to maintain her silence about
Mr. Trump directed me to use my own personal funds from a Home Equity
Line of Credit to avoid any money being traced back to him that could
consider whether that was improper, much less whether it was the right
I am going to jail in part because of my decision to help Mr. Trump hide that
payment from the American people before they voted a few days later.
check that President Trump personally signed from his personal bank
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account on August 1, 2017 – when he was President of the United States –
reimburse me – the word used by Mr. Trump’s TV lawyer -- for the illegal
hush money I paid on his behalf. This $35,000 check was one of 11 check
installments that was paid throughout the year – while he was President.
Other checks to reimburse me for the hush money payments were signed
by Don Jr. and Allen Weisselberg. See, for example, Exhibit 5B.
The President of the United States thus wrote a personal check for the
finance laws. You can find the details of that scheme, directed by Mr.
Trump, in the pleadings in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of
New York.
So picture this scene – in February 2017, one month into his presidency,
I’m visiting President Trump in the Oval Office for the first time. It’s truly
January and February reimbursement checks are coming. They were Fed-
Exed from New York and it takes a while for that to get through the White
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House system. As he promised, I received the first check for the
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
Mr. Trump’s direction threatening these schools with civil and criminal
actions if Mr. Trump’s grades or SAT scores were ever disclosed without
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. As you can see in
Exhibit 7, Mr. Trump declared “Let him show his records” after calling
The sad fact is that I never heard Mr. Trump say anything in private that led
the opposite.
including mine – he showed me what he claimed was a $10 million IRS tax
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refund, and he said that he could not believe how stupid the government
was for giving “someone like him” that much money back.
During the campaign, Mr. Trump said he did not consider Vietnam Veteran,
people who weren’t captured. At the same time, Mr. Trump tasked me to
handle the negative press surrounding his medical deferment from the
Vietnam draft.
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
He finished the conversation with the following comment. “You think I’m
I find it ironic, President Trump, that you are in Vietnam right now.
***
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Questions have been raised about whether I know of direct evidence that
Sometime in the summer of 2017, I read all over the media that there had
been a meeting in Trump Tower in June 2016 involving Don Jr. and others
government, and an email setting up the meeting with the subject line, “Dirt
room with Mr. Trump, probably in early June 2016, when something
peculiar happened. Don Jr. came into the room and walked behind his
father’s desk – which in itself was unusual. People didn’t just walk behind
Mr. Trump’s desk to talk to him. I recalled Don Jr. leaning over to his father
and speaking in a low voice, which I could clearly hear, and saying: “The
know.”
What struck me as I looked back and thought about that exchange between
Don Jr. and his father was, first, that Mr. Trump had frequently told me and
others that his son Don Jr. had the worst judgment of anyone in the
world. And also, that Don Jr. would never set up any meeting of any
significance alone – and certainly not without checking with his father.
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I also knew that nothing went on in Trump world, especially the campaign,
without Mr. Trump’s knowledge and approval. So, I concluded that Don
Jr. was referring to that June 2016 Trump Tower meeting about dirt on
Hillary with the Russian representative when he walked behind his dad’s
desk that day -- and that Mr. Trump knew that was the meeting Don Jr. was
***
Over the past year or so, I have done some real soul searching. I see now
that my ambition and the intoxication of Trump power had much to do with
members of this Committee, and the other members of the House and
To our nation, I am sorry for actively working to hide from you the truth
For those who question my motives for being here today, I understand. I
have lied, but I am not a liar. I have done bad things, but I am not a bad
man. I have fixed things, but I am no longer your “fixer,” Mr. Trump.
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I am going to prison and have shattered the safety and security that I tried
the pain I caused my family and friends – nothing can do that. And I have
never asked for, nor would I accept, a pardon from President Trump.
from appearing before this panel. Mr. Trump called me a “rat” for choosing
to tell the truth – much like a mobster would do when one of his men
that Mr. Trump posted, attacking me and my family – only someone burying
his head in the sand would not recognize them for what they are:
family – and unleash his TV-lawyer to do the same. I hope this committee
and all members of Congress on both sides of the aisle will make it clear:
congress and attacks on family are out of bounds and not acceptable.
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I wish to especially thank Speaker Pelosi for her statements in Exhibit 9 to
protect this institution and me, and the Chairman of the House Permanent
likewise defending this institution and my family against the attacks by Mr.
Trump, and also the many Republicans who have admonished the
President as well.
I am not a perfect man. I have done things I am not proud of, and I will live
But today, I get to decide the example I set for my children and how I
attempt to change how history will remember me. I may not be able to
change the past, but I can do right by the American people here today.
questions.
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