A day after President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen postponed his Congressional testimony, the Senate Intelligence Committee served him with a subpoena.
Cohen’s lawyer Lanny Davis confirmed he received the subpoena.
Cohen was scheduled to testify in front of the House Oversight Committee on February 7. Cohen postponed his testimony due to supposed threats from Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Cohen and Davis did not elaborate on these threats.
From USA Today:
Lanny Davis, one of Cohen’s lawyers, confirmed Thursday that he had received a subpoena. The committee didn’t set a date for him to testify, but said it wanted him to do so in February, before Cohen is due to report to federal prison March 6.Davis told MSNBC that Cohen will “honor” congressional subpoenas, but any appearance would depend on lawmakers’ assurances that Cohen and his family would be protected.“Mr. Cohen is concerned that when you are labeled a rat and you are going to federal prison, there could be some danger,” Davis told MSNBC.
However, as I mentioned in my post yesterday, Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Rep. Mark Meadows had some questions about Davis:
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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