Michael Cohen to bring receipts today

When Michael Cohen plead guilty to lying about making secret payments to Donald Trump’s illicit sexual paramours in violation of campaign finance laws, in his allocution to the court pleading guilty he stated stated that he was directed to make the payments by an unindicited co-conspirator “individual-1” — Donald Trump.

In his public testimony today before the House Oversight Committee, Michael Cohen will bring receipts — a check signed by Donald Trump to reimburse him for the illegal payments — to corroborate his claim. The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, Cohen to Testify That Trump Engaged in Criminal Conduct While in Office (pay wall):

Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former lawyer, plans on Wednesday for the first time to publicly accuse the president of engaging—while in office—in criminal conduct related to a hush-money payment to a porn star, a person familiar with his expected testimony before Congress said.

Mr. Cohen’s planned testimony comes 13 months after the Journal first reported that Mr. Cohen paid $130,000 in October 2016 to former adult-film star Stephanie Clifford, known as Stormy Daniels, to buy her silence after she alleged having a sexual encounter with Mr. Trump.

In December, federal prosecutors in New York for the first time directly implicated the president in the payoff scheme, referring to him n court papers as”Individual-1,” alleging that Mr. Trump had played a key role in the hush-money payments.

Mr. Cohen plans to give his most detailed public account to date of Mr. Trump’s alleged direction of the hush payments, as well as how Mr. Trump was involved in efforts to conceal them from the public weeks before the 2106 election.

He also plans to allege that Mr. Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, was involved in those efforts. [Weisselberg is now a cooperating witness under an immunity agreement with prosecutors in the Southern District of New York.]

In his testimony Wednesday, Mr. Cohen will provide documentation of his reimbursement for the $130,000 Clifford payment, which he received in monthly installments of $35,000 throughout 2017.

Mr. Cohen intends to show the panel a signed check, the person said.

The Wall Street Journal advances its reporting this morning with another key revelation on the “collusion” aspect of the investigation. Michael Cohen to Say Trump Learned of WikiLeaks Plans Early, Committed Crimes While in Office (pay wall):

Mr. Cohen is also set to detail several other allegations, including that Mr. Trump had advance knowledge of WikiLeaks’ plans to release Democratic emails during the 2016 campaign—emails that American intelligence agencies have said were stolen [by Russian hackers].

The Washington Post adds, Michael Cohen to testify that Trump knew of WikiLeaks plot:

Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, will tell Congress on Wednesday that Trump knew his longtime adviser Roger Stone was communicating with WikiLeaks about publishing stolen emails from the Democratic National Committee, according to the text of his prepared opening statement.

In the prepared remarks, Cohen calls Trump a “racist,” a “conman” and a “cheat” and also levels accusations that the president personally signed a check to cover “hush money payments” to keep quiet an affair with adult-film actress Stormy Daniels. Cohen says Trump never directly told him to lie to Congress about his business dealings in Moscow, but claims the president implicitly encouraged him to do so.

A person familiar with the prepared congressional testimony said the document, which was first published by Politico, reflects what Cohen submitted as his prepared remarks, though they could change somewhat when he delivers them Wednesday to the House Oversight Committee.

“He is a racist. He is a conman. He is a cheat,” the remarks say, referring to Trump. “He was a presidential candidate who knew that Roger Stone was talking with Julian Assange about a WikiLeaks drop of Democratic National Committee emails.”

* * *

Cohen plans to testify that in July 2016, shortly before the Democratic convention, he overheard Trump and Stone discussing Assange’s plans. WikiLeaks released stolen DNC emails on July 22, 2016, three days before the Democratic convention.

“Days before the Democratic convention, I was in Mr. Trump’s office when his secretary announced that Roger Stone was on the phone. Mr. Trump put Mr. Stone on the speakerphone. Mr. Stone told Mr. Trump that he had just gotten off the phone with Julian Assange and that Mr. Assange told Mr. Stone that, within a couple of days, there would be a massive dump of emails that would damage Hillary Clinton’s campaign,” the testimony notes. “Mr. Trump responded by stating to the effect of ‘wouldn’t that be great.”

Stone was indicted last month for lying, obstruction and witness tampering in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump has denied ever talking with Stone about WikiLeaks. The person familiar with the testimony said Cohen does not have other evidence, such as contemporaneous memos, to support his recollection of the call he claims to have overheard between Stone and the president.

* * *

Cohen says Trump directed him to pay off Daniels and to lie to Melania Trump about the relationship. Cohen plans to give Congress a copy of the $130,000 wire transfer he sent Daniels’s attorney during the campaign as well what he describes as a $35,000 check signed by the president from his personal bank account on Aug. 1, 2017. He says it was one in a series of installments Trump made to reimburse him for that hush-money payout.

Cohen has pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations related to the payments to Daniels. Trump claims he never told Cohen to send money to the adult film actress.

“He asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair, and to lie to his wife about it, which I did. Lying to the First Lady is one of my biggest regrets. She is a kind, good person. I respect her greatly – and she did not deserve that,” his remarks say.

The president’s former lawyer says that Trump continued negotiating for a luxury condo tower project in Russia throughout the 2016 campaign. Cohen has also pleaded guilty to lying about that project in his 2017 testimony to the Senate and House intelligence committees.

“Mr. Trump knew of and directed the Trump Moscow negotiations throughout the campaign and lied about it. He lied about it because he never expected to win the election. He also lied about it because he stood to make hundreds of millions of dollars on the Moscow real estate project,” Cohen’s remarks say.

Cohen adds that Trump “did not directly tell me to lie to Congress. That’s not how he operates.” But he alleges that Trump’s “personal lawyers” reviewed his untruthful testimony ahead of time.

“I lied about it, too – because Mr. Trump had made clear to me, through his personal statements to me that we both knew were false and through his lies to the country, that he wanted me to lie,” the remarks say. “And he made it clear to me because his personal attorneys reviewed my statement before I gave it to Congress.”

So Michael Cohen may not be the only Trump attorney who gets disbarred for unethical misconduct. Suborning perjury is a criminal offense.

Cohen plans to testify that he doesn’t have any direct knowledge of Trump’s campaign coordinating with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election. But he does recount an encounter, “probably in early June 2016,” between Trump and Donald Trump Jr. that he suggests may have been related to the president’s son meeting that same month with a Russian lawyer whom intermediaries had suggested had dirt on Hillary Clinton.

“I recalled Don Jr. leaning over to his father and speaking in a low voice, which I could clearly hear, and saying, ‘The meeting is all set.’ I remember Mr. Trump saying, ‘Ok good…let me know,’” Cohen’s remarks say. “What struck me as I looked back and thought about that exchange between Don Jr. and his father was, first, that Mr. Trump had frequently told me and others that his son Don Jr. had the worst judgment of anyone in the world. And also, that Don Jr. would never set up any meeting of any significance alone – and certainly not without checking with his father.”

Cohen also claims that Trump misused money and misrepresented his finances. In one case, Cohen says Trump directed him to find a straw bidder to purchase a portrait of himself at an auction. After the bidder bought the painting for $60,000, the Trump Foundation reimbursed the person with funds meant for charitable use, Cohen says. In 2016, The Post reported that Trump used $20,000 in Trump Foundation money to purchase a 6-foot-tall portrait of himself at a children’s charity event at Mar-a-Lago in 2007, possibly in violation of IRS rules.

So here is the situation: “Individual-1,” Donald Trump, is an unindicted co-conspirator in Michael Cohen’s criminal case only because of a Department of Justice (DOJ) policy that a sitting president cannot be indicted. I have previously explained the legal deficiency of this DOJ policy. Yes, a sitting president can be indicted for criminal misconduct.

Most constitutional law experts reject the notion that a sitting president is immune from prosecution while in office. Former Attorney General Eric Holder tweeted last night:

Here is the link to the Boston Globe opinion by constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe referenced in the tweet. Constitution rules out immunity for sitting presidents, and his earlier piece at Lawfare. Yes, the Constitution Allows Indictment of the President.

Rachel Maddow recently did a segment on the historical background of this 1973 DOJ policy which further undermines its legal foundations and significance as sound constitutional policy. Walter Dellinger, former assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel, told Rachel Maddow that the Justice Department policy that a sitting president cannot be indicted is “shaky” and not “at all solid.” watch.

So we are presented with two options: DOJ must revisit its “shaky” policy and indict “Individual-1,” or Congress must impeach “Individual-1,” a sitting criminal in the White House. The rule of law requires no less.