Impeachable? Trump Directs Cohen To Lie To Congress (#GotBitcoin?)

House Democrats say they will look into whether President Trump asked former lawyer Michael Cohen to commit perjury. Impeachable? Trump Directs Cohen To Lie To Congress

Lawmakers said they would investigate a report that President Trump directed his former lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about the president’s involvement in a real-estate deal with Russia during the 2016 campaign.

The chairmen of two House investigative panels said Friday they would probe the report’s allegations. Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), who leads the House Intelligence Committee, said the panel would “do what’s necessary to find out if it’s true.”

“The allegation that the President of the United States may have suborned perjury before our committee in an effort to curtail the investigation and cover up his business dealings with Russia is among the most serious to date,” he tweeted.

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D., N,Y), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, tweeted that the panel’s “job is to get to the bottom of it, and we will do that work.” He added: “We know that the President has engaged in a long pattern of obstruction.”

Mr. Trump in a tweet Friday morning suggested Mr. Cohen was “lying to reduce his jail time,” but didn’t specify what he believed his former lawyer was lying about. Mr. Cohen was already sentenced last month to three years in prison.

Responding to the reported allegation, Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, questioned Mr. Cohen’s credibility. “Haven’t checked it out but if you believe Cohen I can get you a good all-cash deal on the Brooklyn Bridge,” Mr. Giuliani said via text message.

The president has repeatedly denied any collusion with Russia or obstruction of justice.

Other Democratic members of the panel called for severe consequences if Mr. Trump is found to have directed his lawyer to lie to Congress. “If the @BuzzFeed story is true, President Trump must resign or be impeached,” Rep. Joaquin Castro (D., Texas) said on Twitter.

Rep. Ted Lieu (D., Calif.), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said in a tweet that the report “establishes a clear case of obstruction of justice,” and said: “It is time for the House Judiciary Committee to start holding hearings to establish a record of whether @POTUS committed high crimes.”

He added: “Oh, fyi the first Article of Impeachment for Richard Nixon was Obstruction of Justice.” The House Judiciary Committee is the panel charged with initiating impeachment proceedings if there is enough support in the chamber to do so.

Buzzfeed News reported late Thursday, citing two law-enforcement officials, that Mr. Cohen had told special counsel Robert Mueller that the president had directed him to tell Congress in his 2017 testimony that negotiations for a Trump Tower in Moscow had ended in January 2016, when in fact they had continued through June of that year—a month after Mr. Trump effectively won the GOP nomination. Buzzfeed also reported that Mr. Mueller had evidence corroborating Mr. Trump’s direction of Mr. Cohen, including interviews and documents.

Mr. Cohen is scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Feb. 7, though his testimony is not expected to focus on what he has discussed with Mr. Mueller, according to a person close to Mr. Cohen.

Mr. Cohen in December pleaded guilty in a case brought by Mr. Mueller to lying to Congress, telling a federal court that he had lied “out of loyalty” to Mr. Trump. He has since been sentenced to three years in prison.

In a December court filing in which they recommended no jail time for their client, Mr. Cohen’s attorneys said that in the weeks that his written response was being prepared for Congress, Mr. Cohen “remained in close and regular contact with White House-based staff and legal counsel” to Mr. Trump, referred to as “Client-1.”

Suborning perjury is a crime that constitutes obstruction of justice. William Barr, Mr. Trump’s attorney general nominee, said in his confirmation hearing earlier this week that “a president persuading a person to commit perjury” was obstruction.

Mr. Mueller, as part of his investigation into whether Trump associates colluded with Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election, is probing whether the president obstructed justice, including by firing former FBI Director James Comey while the agency’s Russia investigation was under way. Mr. Trump has denied collusion and obstruction, and Russia has denied election interference.

Lanny Davis, a spokesman for Mr. Cohen, declined to comment on the Buzzfeed report. A spokesman for Mr. Mueller didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Democratic lawmakers who have thus far not sought to rush Mr. Mueller’s investigation called for an immediate release of details to Congress.

“Listen, if Mueller does have multiple sources confirming Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress, then we need to know this ASAP. Mueller shouldn’t end his inquiry, but it’s about time for him to show Congress his cards before it’s too late for us to act,” Rep. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) tweeted.

Aides to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) declined to comment on the report. A spokesman for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) did not return a request for comment.

Special Counsel Disputes BuzzFeed Report That Alleged Trump Directed Cohen To Lie to Congress

House Democrats said earlier they would probe the allegations in the report.

The special counsel’s office issued a rare statement late Friday disputing a BuzzFeed report that said President Trump directed his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress about the president’s involvement in a real-estate deal with Russia during the 2016 campaign.

“BuzzFeed’s description of specific statements to the Special Counsel’s Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s Congressional testimony are not accurate,” said Peter Carr, spokesman for special counsel Robert Mueller.

The statement came nearly a day after BuzzFeed published the story, citing two anonymous law-enforcement sources, that set off a firestorm in Washington. The chairmen of two House investigative panels had said earlier Friday they would probe the report’s allegations.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), who leads the House Intelligence Committee, said the panel would “do what’s necessary to find out if it is true.” Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D., N.Y.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, tweeted that the panel’s “job is to get to the bottom of it, and we will do that work.”

Mr. Trump in a tweet Friday morning suggested Mr. Cohen was “lying to reduce his jail time,” but didn’t specify what he believed his former lawyer was lying about. Mr. Cohen was sentenced last month to three years in prison.

Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, had responded to the story by questioning Mr. Cohen’s credibility. “Haven’t checked it out but if you believe Cohen I can get you a good all-cash deal on the Brooklyn Bridge,” Mr. Giuliani said via text message.

On Friday, Mr. Giuliani said in a statement: “Any suggestion—from any source—that the president counseled Michael Cohen to lie is categorically false.” He called the allegation that Mr. Trump had directed Mr. Cohen to lie to Congress “just more made-up lies born of Michael Cohen’s malice and desperation.”

The president repeatedly has denied collusion with Russia or obstruction of justice.

BuzzFeed News reported late Thursday that Mr. Cohen had told Mr. Mueller that Mr. Trump had directed him to tell Congress in his 2017 testimony that negotiations for a Trump Tower in Moscow had ended in January 2016, when in fact they had continued through June of that year—a month after Mr. Trump effectively won the GOP nomination.

BuzzFeed also reported that Mr. Mueller had evidence corroborating Mr. Trump’s direction of Mr. Cohen, including interviews and documents.

Late Friday, responding to the statement from the special counsel’s office, BuzzFeed said it was confident in its story. “We stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what he’s disputing,” Ben Smith, editor in chief of BuzzFeed, said on Twitter.

A sentencing statement by Mr. Cohen’s attorneys last month suggested that the former Trump lawyer had acted at Mr. Trump’s behest when he lied to Congress—an allegation that wasn’t repeated when Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty in federal court later that month.

The attorneys wrote in that filing that their client’s false statements to Congress were “intended to benefit Client-1, in accordance with Client-1’s directives,” referring to Mr. Trump.

Yet when Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress, he said he had lied “to be consistent with [Mr. Trump’s] political messaging and out of loyalty to” Mr. Trump, and made no mention of any directive from the president.

Mr. Cohen is scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Feb. 7, though his testimony isn’t expected to focus on what he has discussed with Mr. Mueller, according to a person close to Mr. Cohen.

Suborning perjury is a crime that constitutes obstruction of justice. William Barr, Mr. Trump’s attorney general nominee, said in his confirmation hearing earlier this week that “a president persuading a person to commit perjury” was obstruction.

Lanny Davis, a spokesman for Mr. Cohen, declined to comment on the BuzzFeed report.

Updated 4-23-2019

Trump Dismisses Impeachment Threat As Democrats Discuss Next Steps

Days after the release of Mueller’s report, Speaker Pelosi will hold a conference call with lawmakers.

President Trump said he is “not even a little bit” concerned about impeachment as House Democrats prepared to discuss their next steps later Monday in the wake of the special counsel’s Russia report.

The report, released Thursday with portions redacted, detailed what it says were attempts by Mr. Trump to control special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation and blunt its fallout. It contained examples of instances in which aides, including then-White House counsel Don McGahn, didn’t carry out Mr. Trump’s directives related to tamping down the probe.

Mr. Trump, who called some of the information in the report “bullshit” last week, also on Monday dismissed the report’s findings that his aides sometimes ignored his direction. “Nobody disobeys my orders,” the president responded when asked by a reporter to comment on whether staff ignored his directives.

Mr. Trump’s comments, at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll event, came hours before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) was to hold a conference call with her caucus about the report. Some lawmakers in the party’s progressive wing have pushed for impeachment proceedings, but Mrs. Pelosi has been wary of pursuing that avenue, given its political risks and low probability of succeeding in removing the president from office. Even if an impeachment resolution were to pass the House, it would need a supermajority in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Mrs. Pelosi is expected to convey a continued reluctance on Monday’s call, according to a House Democratic aide. In a letter to Democrats ahead of the meeting, Mrs. Pelosi said: “While our views range from proceeding to investigate the findings of the Mueller report or proceeding directly to impeachment, we all firmly agree that we should proceed down a path of finding the truth.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a 2020 contender for the party’s presidential nomination, has called for impeachment proceedings. But other Democratic presidential candidates and party leaders are urging more caution, saying the party should proceed with hearings and hear directly from Mr. Mueller and others before making any decision on pursuing impeachment.

On Friday, House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D., N.Y.) issued a subpoena for the full Mueller report and underlying evidence related to the investigation. Mrs. Pelosi, in her letter Monday, said Democratic committee chairmen will provide updates on their review of the redacted Mueller report and their request for the full document and underlying exhibits, as well as discuss their next steps.

Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Reform Committee, tweeted of the Democrats’ planned phone call: “SPOILER: They’re going to keep focusing on stopping the President, not helping the country.”

The 448-page report followed a nearly two-year investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and ties to Mr. Trump’s campaign.

The special counsel has charged dozens of Russian entities and individuals in 2016 election interference efforts, and Mr. Mueller found repeated contacts between Russia-linked entities and Trump campaign officials that coincided with those efforts. But Mr. Mueller didn’t establish that anyone affiliated with the GOP presidential campaign knowingly conspired with election interference, the report said. The report also explained why the special counsel didn’t pursue charges of obstruction of justice, citing, in part, Justice Department guidance that a sitting president can’t be indicted.

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