This Wednesday, after weeks on end of delay, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen finally appeared publicly before the House Oversight Committee. Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) had to wade through objections from Republican panel members before even being able to get the hearing underway, but once he did, he firmly established his position that it’s time for Congress to finally exercise its oversight responsibility over the Trump administration.
Cummings insisted:
‘Every one of us in this room has a duty to serve as an independent check on the executive branch. Ladies and gentlemen, we are in search of the truth. The president has made many statements of his own, and now the American people have a right to hear the other side… The days of this committee protecting the president at all costs are over.’
In the hours before Cohen took the stand, the scope of just what he’d be discussing came out. He shared, for instance, a check that President Trump himself signed to reimburse him for hush money that the lawyer illegally funneled to adult film star Stormy Daniels to cover an affair she’d had with the eventual president. That check was dated well into the Trump presidency, and since Cohen has since pleaded guilty to federal campaign finance law violations because of the hush money scheme — the president participated in covering up a federal crime while in office.
That’s not all. Cohen also was set to share information about an early tipoff then-candidate Trump got from his longtime associate Roger Stone about incoming Wikileaks dumps of emails that Russian hackers had stolen from the Democrats.
Stone has been charged with witness tampering, lying to Congress, and obstruction of justice as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. Trump, meanwhile, has lied thousands and thousands of documented times while in office, including that he had no knowledge of the hush money payments Cohen had helped facilitate. Trump’s lies make Republicans whining about Cohen having supposed low credibility deeply ironic.
Once the hush money reimbursement information came out, the Trump team claimed the money was just a monthly retainer — which is false, federal prosecutors have concluded.
Cohen’s testimony before Congress this week proves that Trump simply can’t run from the law forever. Some have even suggested he could face his own criminal charges from federal prosecutors in New York after leaving office.
Watch below.
Featured Image via Screenshot from the video
