This morning, I wrote about the statement Michael Cohen prepared for his testimony to Congress. Well now we've seen most of that hearing, and, as bad as the statement was, it got worse.
My favorite moment of the day came when congressman Meadows asked Cohen to confirm that he had held contacts to lobby the administration for certain foreign companies like Novartis and others. Cohen did confirm this. Meadows then confirmed that Cohen never bothered to register as an agent of a foreign entity as required by law. Cohen confirmed he hadn't registered. After that, Meadows tweeted that he had just filed a criminal referral for Cohen's failure to follow the FARA requirements. Cohen managed by testifying to open himself up to more criminal prosecution.
Another low point came when Cohen denied that he ever tried to get a job to work in the Trump administration. That directly contradicts the statements that the prosecutors filed in his criminal case in federal court in which they said that Cohen confirmed that he had tried to get a job in the administration. That was followed by tweets from various members of the Trump transition team confirming that Cohen had asked, even begged for a job in the administration. After lying to Congress once, Cohen came back to do it again.
Then there were the questions in which Cohen demolished big chunks of the Trump Russia collusion claims that the mainstream media and the Democrats have pushed for the last two years. Cohen said that he had never been to Prague. Cohen confirmed that there was no video of Trump telling hookers to urinate on a bed in a Moscow hotel. These two statements shot to hell the content of the Trump Dossier which contains those two claims. Cohen also confirmed that no one from the FBI asked him if he had ever been to Prague prior to the dossier being used before the FISA court. By law, the FBI had to try to confirm the contents of the Dossier before presenting it to the FISA court. Since Cohen's supposed trip to Prague was the centerpiece of the dossier, that means that the FBI didn't bother to take even the most obvious steps to confirm the dossier before using it before the FISA court.
Overall, Cohen's performance today was so bad that the only problem for President Trump to arise from these hearings is the question as to why any rational person would hire Cohen to work for him.
My favorite moment of the day came when congressman Meadows asked Cohen to confirm that he had held contacts to lobby the administration for certain foreign companies like Novartis and others. Cohen did confirm this. Meadows then confirmed that Cohen never bothered to register as an agent of a foreign entity as required by law. Cohen confirmed he hadn't registered. After that, Meadows tweeted that he had just filed a criminal referral for Cohen's failure to follow the FARA requirements. Cohen managed by testifying to open himself up to more criminal prosecution.
Another low point came when Cohen denied that he ever tried to get a job to work in the Trump administration. That directly contradicts the statements that the prosecutors filed in his criminal case in federal court in which they said that Cohen confirmed that he had tried to get a job in the administration. That was followed by tweets from various members of the Trump transition team confirming that Cohen had asked, even begged for a job in the administration. After lying to Congress once, Cohen came back to do it again.
Then there were the questions in which Cohen demolished big chunks of the Trump Russia collusion claims that the mainstream media and the Democrats have pushed for the last two years. Cohen said that he had never been to Prague. Cohen confirmed that there was no video of Trump telling hookers to urinate on a bed in a Moscow hotel. These two statements shot to hell the content of the Trump Dossier which contains those two claims. Cohen also confirmed that no one from the FBI asked him if he had ever been to Prague prior to the dossier being used before the FISA court. By law, the FBI had to try to confirm the contents of the Dossier before presenting it to the FISA court. Since Cohen's supposed trip to Prague was the centerpiece of the dossier, that means that the FBI didn't bother to take even the most obvious steps to confirm the dossier before using it before the FISA court.
Overall, Cohen's performance today was so bad that the only problem for President Trump to arise from these hearings is the question as to why any rational person would hire Cohen to work for him.
No comments:
Post a Comment