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.”
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