Michael Cohen, the former personal attorney of the United States President Donald Trump, will be providing testimony as evidence of criminal conduct against the latter, in a three-day appearance starting Tuesday, February 27.
He will be interviewed privately by the Senate intelligence committee initially, then provide public testimony at the House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing Wednesday, as well as attend a closed door interview with the House intelligence committee on Thursday.
Tuesday's meeting will be a departure from the practice of only having staff present during such interviews in that senators on the panel will be in the background. Senators on the intelligence panel who will be present will be there to observe but pose questions only through the staff.
Chairman Richard Burr of the Senate Intelligence Committee pointed out that the interview session will be open to any and all types of questions. Burr pointed out that the committee will be testing Cohen, to check if the latter was being truthful.
At the House Oversight and Reform Committee, the ex-Trump-loyalist will be presenting documents as evidence President Trump manipulated his net financial worth both for business and personal reasons.
Cohen will also reveal evidence of the President's direct involvement in attempts to conceal his affair with as well as pay off sexy star Stormy Daniels prior to the election in 2016. Trump has since denied being ever involved with Daniels or that he instructed his then-lawyer Cohen to pay her off.
In his testimony which was recently released, the disbarred lawyer referred to the President as a "cheat," a "conman," and a "racist." In his statement, the former Trump supporter expressed "regret" for "all the help and support" he said he gave the President. He also shared that he was "ashamed" for being party to "concealing Mr. Trump's illicit acts."
Michael Cohen's documents, he reveals in his statement, include a copy of the alleged personal check that the President wrote him as reimbursement for payments the former had made in attempts to hide the said affair and avoid hurting the latter's presidential campaign. The check was supposedly issued by Mr. Trump after he was already elected president.
Other documents that Cohen will be furnishing the Committee with include financial statements he provided the Deutsch Bank as well as other banks from 2011 to 2013, copies of communication to the high school the President formerly attended, academic institutions, and college boards that were "threatened not to release" Trump's "grades or SAT scores."
The testimony also included Cohen's admission that he had lied about the Moscow Tower project, stating that negotiations had gone on "for months" even as the campaign was underway and had not stopped in January 2016, as he had first testified.
The 20-page document outlines how the President conducted his dealings with Cohen, as well as how the latter first came to work for the former, and years of business as well as personal matters the lawyer dealt with through a decades-long defense of an employer, later would-be president, and as president-elect.
Cohen also stated how over the years of working for Mr. Trump, that he had finally gotten to know Trump's character, "capable of behaving kindly," but "not kind."
The former Trump confidant is set to begin serving his sentence in May for violations of the federal campaign finance laws, his involvement with the Daniels matter, committing perjury in Congress and tax evasion as well as bank fraud.
