A5
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2019
Cohen: Trump knew about WikiLeaks dump
By MARY CLARE JALONICK,
ERIC TUCKER and
MICHAEL R. SISAK
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Presi-
dent Donald Trump’s former per-
sonal lawyer told Congress today
that Trump knew ahead of time
that WikiLeaks had emails damag-
ing to Hillary Clinton’s presiden-
tial campaign, and he testifi ed that
Trump is a “racist,” a “conman” and
a “cheat.”
Michael Cohen suggested that
Trump also implicitly told him to
lie about a Moscow real estate proj-
ect. Cohen has pleaded guilty to
lying to Congress about the project,
which he says Trump knew about as
Cohen was negotiating with Russia
during the 2016 election campaign.
The hearing was expected to pro-
duce the most damning depiction
to date of Trump’s campaign and
business operations from a onetime
member of the president’s inner cir-
cle. It is the latest step in Cohen’s
evolution from legal fi xer for the
president — he once boasted he’d
“take a bullet” for Trump — to a foe
who has implicated him in federal
campaign fi nance violations.
“I am ashamed of my weakness
and misplaced loyalty, of the things
I did for Mr. Trump in an effort to
protect and promote him,” Cohen
said. “I am ashamed that I chose to
take part in concealing Mr. Trump’s
illicit acts rather than listening to
my own conscience. I am ashamed
because I know what Mr. Trump
is.”
Cohen’s claims that Trump had
advance knowledge of the emails
contradict the president’s assertions
that he was in the dark, but it was
not clear what evidence Cohen had
to support the allegation or even
how legally problematic it would be
for Trump. Special counsel Robert
Mueller has not suggested that mere
awareness of WikiLeaks’ plans, as
Trump confi dant Roger Stone is
purported to have had, is by itself a
crime.
Underscoring the deeply parti-
san nature of the proceedings, Dem-
ocrats on the House Oversight and
Reform Committee lifted an earlier
restriction that the hearing not delve
into Russia, while Republicans tried
unsuccessfully to block the hearing
as it got underway, on grounds that
Cohen had not provided his opening
statement long enough in advance.
The committee’s top Republican,
Rep. Jim Jordan, of Ohio, sought
early on to undermine Cohen’s
credibility by calling him a “fraud-
ster, cheat” and “a convicted felon.”
“Certainly it’s the fi rst time a
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Michael Cohen testifi es before
the House Oversight and Reform
Committee.
convicted perjurer has been brought
back to be a star witness at a hear-
ing,” Jordan said.
Cohen said Trump did not
directly tell him to lie, but “he
would look me in the eye and tell
me there’s no business in Russia
and then go out and lie to the Amer-
ican people by saying the same
thing.”
Cohen said that “in his way, he
was telling me to lie.” He added that
lawyers for Trump had “reviewed
and edited” the statement in which
Cohen falsely said a proposal for
a Trump Tower in Moscow had
been abandoned in January 2016.
Cohen has since said he continued
pursuing the project for Trump for
months after that.
Trump, at a Vietnam hotel before
a planned meeting with North
Korean leader Kim Jong Un and
unable to ignore the drama playing
out thousands of miles away, lashed
out at Cohen on Twitter, saying his
lawyer “did bad things unrelated
to Trump” and “is lying in order to
reduce his prison time.”
A judge already has set Cohen’s
sentence, and Cohen’s cooperation
will have no bearing on that term.
Cohen, ahead of his appearance,
said Tuesday that the American
people could decide “exactly who is
telling the truth” when he testifi ed
before the House committee.
On WikiLeaks, Cohen said in
the prepared testimony that he was
in Trump’s offi ce in July 2016 when
longtime adviser Roger Stone tele-
phoned Trump. Trump put Stone
on speakerphone and Stone told
him that he had communicated with
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
and that “within a couple of days,
there would be a massive dump of
emails that would damage Hillary
Clinton’s campaign,” according to
Cohen.
Trump responded by say-
ing “wouldn’t that be great,”
Cohen said.
That month, WikiLeaks released
thousands of emails hacked from
the Democratic National Commit-
tee’s server.
“A lot of people have asked me
about whether Mr. Trump knew
about the release of the hacked
Democratic National Committee
emails ahead of time,” Cohen said
in the prepared testimony. “The
answer is yes.”
Cohen said he does not have
direct evidence that Trump col-
luded with the Russian govern-
ment during the election, but that
he has “suspicions.” Of a meeting
in Trump Tower between campaign
advisers, including Trump’s oldest
son, and a Russian lawyer, Cohen
said that Trump had frequently told
him that Donald Trump Jr. “had the
worst judgment of anyone in the
world” and he “would never set
up any meeting of any signifi cance
alone — and certainly not without
checking with his father.”
Cohen, once Trump’s loyal attor-
ney, has turned on his former boss
and cooperated with Mueller’s Rus-
sia investigation. He begins a three-
year prison sentence in May after
pleading guilty to lying to Congress
in 2017 and committing campaign
fi nance violations while working
for Trump.
WORLD IN BRIEF
Associated Press
Stormwater fl oods California towns
only reachable by boat
GUERNEVILLE, Calif. — Two communities north of
San Francisco were accessible only by boat today after
a rain-swollen river overfl owed its banks and inundated
them overnight, authorities said.
One of them, the small city of Guerneville, “is offi -
cially an island,” the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Offi ce
said. A short time later, the nearby town of Monte Rio was
also isolated by fl oodwaters with all roads leading to it
swamped.
The swollen Russian River was forecast to swell more
throughout the day, engorged by days of rain from west-
ern U.S. storms that has also dumped heavy snow in the
Sierra Nevada, throughout the Pacifi c Northwest and into
Montana.
Other waterways, including the Napa River, also were
expected to overfl ow their banks as an ocean-spanning
plume of moisture continued tracking through the West.
Snow from the storms closed roads and schools and top-
pled trucks and trees from Oregon to Montana.
Trump, Kim share smiles,
dinner before nuke talks
HANOI, Vietnam — President Donald Trump and
North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, leaders of two nations with a
long history of hostility, opened their second summit today
with smiles, hopeful talk and a friendly dinner that set the
stage for the much more diffi cult talks to come about curb-
ing North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.
THE DAILY
ASTORIAN
Facing widespread skepticism about whether they can
solve a problem that has bedeviled generations of diplo-
mats and offi cials, the two men exchanged a warm hand-
shake before a phalanx of alternating American and North
Korean fl ags before holding a 30-minute one-on-one talk.
Their talks will continue on Thursday.
The two leaders were joined for dinner by Secretary
of State Mike Pompeo, acting White House chief of staff
Mick Mulvaney, Kim Yong Chol, a former military spy
chief and Kim’s point man in negotiations, and North
Korean Foreign Affairs Minister Ri Yong Ho. Interpreters
for each side also attended.
Trump has been trying to convince Kim that his nation
could thrive economically like the host country, Vietnam,
if he would end his nuclear weapons program.
Criminal charges in
North Carolina congressional race
RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina political oper-
ative at the center of a ballot fraud scandal was arrested
today on criminal charges over activities in the 2016 elec-
tions and the Republican primary in 2018.
Leslie McCrae Dowless Jr. was arrested after grand jury
indictments alleging illegal possession of absentee ballots
and obstruction of justice. North Carolina law makes it
illegal for anyone other than the voter or a close relative to
handle a mail-in ballot.
Dowless’ workers in rural Bladen County testifi ed that
they were directed to collect blank or incomplete ballots,
forge signatures on them and even fi ll in votes for local
candidates.
The board has ordered a new election for the 9th Con-
gressional District but hasn’t set a date.
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WASHINGTON — House Democrats have ignored a
veto threat and passed legislation that would stymie Presi-
dent Donald Trump’s bid for billions of extra dollars for a
U.S.-Mexico border wall. The move has escalated a clash
over whether he has abused his powers to advance the signa-
ture pledge of his 2016 campaign.
The House’s 245-182 vote Tuesday to block Trump’s
national emergency declaration fell well below the two-
thirds majority that would be needed to override what would
be the fi rst veto of Trump’s presidency. Thirteen Republi-
cans backed the Democrats’ measure as top Republicans
worked to keep defections as low as possible, wanting to
avoid a tally suggesting that Trump’s hold on lawmakers
was weakening.
The issue is now before the Republican-run Senate, where
there already were enough GOP defections to edge the res-
olution to the brink of passage. Vice President Mike Pence
used a lunch with Republican senators at the Capitol to try
keeping them aboard, citing a crisis at the border, but there
were no signs he had succeeded.
The showdown was forcing Republicans to cast uncom-
fortable votes pitting their support for a president popular
with GOP voters against fears that his use of emergency
powers would invite future Democratic presidents to do
likewise.
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