Michael Cohen Postpones Congressional Testimony Claiming Threats From Trump, Giuliani
“This is a time where Mr. Cohen had to put his family and their safety first.”
President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen has decided to postpone his testimony in front of the House Oversight Committee due to “ongoing threats against his family” from Trump and Trump’s current lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
From The Washington Examiner:
The public testimony was planned for Feb. 7.
“Due to ongoing threats against his family from President Trump and Mr. Giuliani, as recently as this weekend, as well as Mr. Cohen’s continued cooperation with ongoing investigations, by advice of counsel, Mr. Cohen’s appearance will be postponed to a later date,” an attorney for Cohen, Lanny Davis, said in a statement Wednesday.
Davis said Cohen looks forward to testifying at the “appropriate time.”
“This is a time where Mr. Cohen had to put his family and their safety first,” Davis said.
Davis did not elaborate on the “threats” his client has received from Trump and Giuliani.
This news comes a day after Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Rep. Mark Meadows wrote a letter to Cohen’s defense attorney:
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee claimed Tuesday that Michael Cohen’s adviser Lanny Davis orchestrated the former Trump fixer’s upcoming public hearing before the panel, and that Cohen was reluctant to do it.
Committee Ranking Member Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., penned a letter Tuesday to Cohen’s criminal defense attorney Guy Petrillo, requesting information ahead of Cohen’s appearance slated for Feb. 7. The letter includes extensive details, apparently based on a meeting with Davis, about his purported role in setting up what has become the most highly anticipated hearing of the new Congress.
“Davis made clear that Cohen’s upcoming appearance before the Committee is entirely a result of Davis’s orchestration,” Jordan and Meadows wrote, questioning whether it’s part of a broader “media stunt” to harm the president. “According to Davis, the hearing was Davis’s idea and his alone. Cohen apparently did not want to testify — but Davis has persuaded Cohen to appear despite his concerns and fears.”
The letter was sent to Petrillo after committee staff met with Davis in Washington last Friday. According to Jordan and Meadows, Davis told staff that Cohen “did not want to testify,” saying he was “fearful for his family.”
The letter said: “Davis acknowledged, ‘I pushed him to do this,’ explaining ‘this was my idea; nobody else’s.’”
The decision also comes a few days after Mueller and Trump’s team debunked a BuzzFeed report that claimed Trump told Cohen to lie to Congress.
Cohen pleaded guilty in two federal investigations last year: One came from the Southern District of New York and the second from Special Counsel Michael Cohen. The charges included finance violations, tax evasion, and lying to Congress about other Trump’s business plans with Russia. He received a sentence of three years.
The news of Cohen testifying in front of Congress came out a few weeks ago. Cohen told CNN he wanted to speak to Congress “in furtherance of my commitment to cooperate and provide the American people with answers.”
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Of course he’s fearful…but not of the people he SHOULD be fearful of (liberals).
Gee ,I thought lawyers were supposed to reduce their clients legal difficulties ,not subject. them to more legal jeopardy
Cohen’s attorney is Lanny Davis–whose real loyalty is to the Democrats and their jihad against president Trump, not to Cohen.
What a rat.
What threats? Isn’t this where writers throw in that charming word alleged? I call bs.
Is Cohn saying that he and Trump participated in threats and worse when they worked together ?
The legal guild failing us on display. Again. How do these clowns maintain credentials?
Be very suspicious of anything coming out of the mouths of Cohen and Davis. They have an agenda, and neither are noted for being very truthful.
The same can be said of Trump and Julie … it’s just a fact.
And Pelosi and Schumer, etc., etc., etc.
Cohen’s counsel – however many there are – clearly want to score points with the anti-Trump crowd. Did Trump and Giuliani make direct threats of harm? I’d bet my house they didn’t even come close. This is just their way of trying to “own the media cycle” that Trump is so good at. And expect the media and especially cable news to make this a continuous topic for a week or more. That’s all the evidence I need about the counsels’ intent.
I call BS. Cohen has nothing on the President. If he’s received any threats they’re from the Left, because they probably know he has nothing and will only make them look stupid and arrogant.
If they and Team Mueller have evidence of an ongoing criminal conspiracy to taint Cohen’s testimony through threats to his family, why are they even bothering trying to prove collusion with Russia anymore? They have enough to put Trump, Giuliani and who knows how many others in prison for the rest of their natural lives. Shouldn’t they impeach now, and sort the rest out later?
And if they aren’t, shouldn’t I be suspicious? These are extremely serious allegations.
The warlock trial has persisted for eight trimesters and counting. You would think they would have deemed him viable by now.
Cohen hires Lanny Davis, demorat, who pushes him to testify publicly in front of demorat house committee. Demorats are just looking for the soundbites of cohen accusing Trump of something. Doesn’t matter if true, it’s all about the soundbites…
Clintonista Lanny Davis, professional fixer and mud-slinger.
Lanny Davis is a dyed in the wool Clinton supporter. He will do anything to see that they stay out of jail. Davis was the go to guy in the Monica Lewinski debacle and he pulled Hillarys fanny out of the Whitewater mess. Davis was also the chief campaign attorney in her 2016 run. He was expecting to get the Attorney General job once Hillary was elected. The election of Donald J Trump put a permanent monkey wrench into those plans.
Will he wear a pussy hat when he testifies?
They have a firm grip on Cohen’s jewels right now, but that will not last. I am certain that his current handlers understand this, and that they have plans to make sure sure that he cannot tell all.
That is what he should be worried about.
They have a firm grip on Cohen’s jewels right now, but that will not last. I am certain that his current handlers understand this, and that they have plans to make sure sure that he cannot tell all.
That is what Cohen should be worried about.
The real reason Cohen has backed out:
It finally dawned on the idiot that he would be under oath, again, in front of Congress.
He’d have to tell the truth because Mueller and his team would be watching.
He’d have to tell the truth because SDNY would be watching.
He’d have to tell the truth because Trump and his team would be watching.
Lying on anything would open him to charges again. He’s already plead guilty to lying to Congress once.
If he says anything new it’s either a lie or that means he withheld info from Mueller and SDNY. They would drop a hammer the size of NYC on his head in response if he said something new, it was important, and it was the truth.
It’s finally dawned on him that the Democrats don’t give two nickels about him and are just using him. They don’t give a *blank* how long he spends in prison so long as they can use him to bash Trump.
Actually it occurred to me that Lanny Davis thinks Cohen’s testimony is more credible if he is subpoenaed under duress. (At least, if that’s the story they can sell to the media.)
He also knows that Trump probably knows stuff about him that will add years to his jail sentence. Cohen also defrauded people by taking money for White House access when he had none. Does he want to be questioned about how he suckered these people a gave them nothing for their money.
He’ll be just fine. He didn’t work for the Clintons.
His family? Who in his family was threatened? To Trump and Giuliani rough up his son in a dark alley and threaten him. Complete and utter BS. If his lawyer allows him to testify he should be disbarred for not working in his clients interests.
WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-if-the-fbi-had-probed-obama-11548287966
What if the FBI Had Probed Obama?
By the bureau’s Trump standard, he looked like an agent of Iran.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation reportedly opened a counterintelligence investigation in 2017 to find out if President Trump was a Russian agent. What if the FBI had similarly looked into whether President Obama was an agent of Iran?
Sniveling Lanny Davis is behind this. He is and always has been a colossal POS.