DC: White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders dismissed former presidential counsel Michael Cohen’s forthcoming appearance before the House Oversight Committee in a Tuesday morning statement.
Cohen will testify Tuesday and describe the president’s direct role in arranging a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels — born Stephanie Clifford — in the latter month of the campaign, people familiar with the testimony told TheWSJ and TheNYT.
Cohen will also describe other alleged attempts by Trump to manipulate his net worth and using racist language.
“Disgraced felon Michael Cohen is going to prison for lying to Congress and making other false statements. 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,” Sanders said in a statement.
Cohen pleaded guilty in the southern district to knowingly working with Trump to circumvent campaign finance law, evading taxes and making false statements to Congress on the nature of a Trump Tower Moscow project. Prosecutors targeting Cohen told the court that the aim of the payments to Daniels and McDougal were made to hide his affairs.
Previous court filings allege that Trump worked with Cohen to circumvent campaign finance law when directing payments to two women, including Daniels, threatening to go public with affair allegations against the then-presidential candidate.
The payments were later disclosed by Trump in a May 2018 financial disclosure form. The president noted that if his payments to the two women were campaign finance violations, it was his Cohen’s error — not his own.
Presidential attorney Rudy Giuliani tweeted after Cohen’s December guilty plea that “the payments to Daniels and McDougall do not violate the law. Congress has spent millions settling sexual harassment claims against members which are not reported as campaign contributions. Why aren’t those Congressmen under investigation.” more here
Look, it ain’t like he’s going to prison for being a liar. Wait, what?