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Saturday, January 19, 2019
Congress to probe whether Trump told lawyer Cohen to lie
By MARY CLARE
JALONICK
and ERIC TUCKER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
—
Democrats are vowing to
investigate whether Presi-
dent Donald Trump directed
his
personal
attorney
Michael Cohen to lie to
Congress about a Moscow
real estate project, calling
that possibility a “concern
of the greatest magnitude.”
Trump’s current lawyer said
the allegations sparking the
inquiry are “categorically
false.”
Any evidence that Trump
directed a witness to lie to
investigators would place
him in the greatest political
and legal jeopardy yet and
confront him with allega-
tions of the sort that led to
the departure of one presi-
dent and the impeachment
of another.
At issue is a report by
BuzzFeed News that Trump
told Cohen to lie about nego-
tiations over the Moscow
project that extended into the
2016 campaign. The Asso-
ciated Press has not inde-
pendently confirmed the
report.
Trump lawyer Rudy
Giuliani said in a statement
Friday that “any sugges-
tion — from any source
— that the President coun-
seled Michael Cohen to lie
is categorically false.” White
House spokeswoman Sarah
Huckabee Sanders called
the allegation “absolutely
ridiculous.”
The report comes as
House Democrats have
promised a thorough look
into Trump’s ties to Russia,
and as special counsel
Robert Mueller is investi-
gating Russia’s meddling
in the 2016 election and
contacts with the Trump
campaign.
Though his supporters
have said Trump cannot
be investigated for actions
the Constitution permits
him to take, even the presi-
dent’s nominee for attorney
general, William Barr, said
at his confirmation hearing
this week that a president or
AP Photo/Kevin Hagen
Michael Cohen arrives at his home in New York with his left arm in a sling supported by a pillow on Friday.
anyone else who instructs a
witness to lie or change his
testimony commits illegal
obstruction of justice.
BuzzFeed, citing two
unidentified law enforce-
ment officials, said Trump
directed Cohen to lie to
Congress and that Cohen
regularly briefed Trump and
his family on the Trump
Tower project in Moscow
— even as Trump said he
had no business dealings
with Russia. BuzzFeed
said Cohen told Mueller
that Trump personally
instructed him to lie about
the timing of the project in
order to obscure Trump’s
involvement.
BuzzFeed said Muel-
ler’s investigators learned
about Trump’s directive
“through interviews with
multiple witnesses from the
Trump Organization and
internal company emails,
text messages, and a cache
of other documents.” The
report says Cohen then
acknowledged
Trump’s
instructions when he was
interviewed by the Mueller
team.
On
Twitter,
Trump
charged that Cohen was
“Lying to reduce his jail
time!”
Giuliani noted that Cohen
had pleaded guilty to lying
and quoted federal prosecu-
tors in New York who chas-
tised him for a “pattern of
lies and dishonesty over an
extended period of time.”
Mueller’s team, however,
has called him a credible
witness.
“Today’s claims are just
more made-up lies born of
Michael Cohen’s malice and
desperation,” Giuliani said.
Lanny Davis, a Cohen
adviser,
declined
to
comment. On Friday, as
photos surfaced of Cohen
wearing a hospital ID
bracelet and cradling a
pillow with his right arm in a
sling, Davis said Cohen had
undergone minor shoulder
surgery.
Though
Republicans
stayed mostly silent, two
Democratic
committee
chairmen in the House said
they will open inquiries.
The House Intelligence
Committee chairman, Adam
Schiff, D-Calif., said “we
will do what’s necessary to
find out” if the report was
true. He said the allegation
that Trump directed Cohen
to lie in his 2017 testimony
“in an effort to curtail the
investigation and cover up
his business dealings with
Russia is among the most
serious to date.”
Calling the allegations
a
“counterintelligence
concern of the greatest
magnitude,” Schiff said his
committee had already been
working to secure witness
testimony and documents
related to the Moscow deal.
The chairman of the
House Judiciary Committee,
Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New
York, said directing a subor-
dinate to lie to Congress
would be a federal crime. He
said his committee’s job “is
to get to the bottom of it, and
we will do that work.”
Cohen is scheduled
to testify publicly before
the House Oversight and
Reform Committee on Feb.
7. Schiff has said he wants
Cohen to testify before the
intelligence panel, as well.
The top Democrat on
the Senate intelligence
committee, Virginia Sen.
Mark Warner, said Friday
that he expects Cohen to talk
to that panel in February.
The intelligence committee
interviews would most likely
be behind closed doors, if
Cohen does appear.
Cohen pleaded guilty
in November to lying to
Congress to cover up that he
was negotiating the Trump
Tower project on Trump’s
behalf during the heat of
his presidential campaign.
The charge was brought by
Mueller and was the result
of Cohen’s cooperation with
that probe.
He admitted that he lied
when he told lawmakers he
had never agreed to travel to
Russia in connection with the
Moscow project and when
he said that he’d decided
by the end of January 2016
that the “proposal was not
feasible for a variety of busi-
ness reasons and should not
be pursued further.”
He was sentenced to three
years in prison for crimes
that included arranging the
payment of hush money to
conceal his boss’ alleged
sexual affairs, telling a judge
that he agreed time and
again to cover up Trump’s
“dirty deeds” out of “blind
loyalty.”
Though some limits
of executive power are
untested, there is historical
precedent for a president
to face consequences over
similar allegations.
One of the articles of
impeachment
against
Bill Clinton, for instance,
accused him of encouraging
a witness to give false testi-
mony. Richard Nixon faced
similar allegations before
ultimately leaving the White
House.
Though Congress could
use the allegation as a basis
for impeachment proceed-
ings, Justice Department
legal opinions say a sitting
president cannot face crim-
inal charges. Barr said this
week that he saw no reason
to change that policy.
Though House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi has discour-
aged any talk of impeach-
ment in the early days of
her new majority, some
senior Democrats said that
if the BuzzFeed report is
confirmed, Trump’s actions
could rise to that level.
“If the @BuzzFeed
story is true, President
Trump must resign or be
impeached,” tweeted Texas
Rep. Joaquin Castro, a
member of the House intel-
ligence panel.
Rhode Island Rep. David
Cicilline, also a Judiciary
committee member, tweeted
that if Trump directed Cohen
to lie, “that is obstruction of
justice. Period. Full stop.”
A Senate Democrat, Chris
Murphy of Connecticut,
tweeted that “we need to
know this ASAP” if Mueller
does have multiple sources
confirming that Trump
directed Cohen to lie.
Trump, North Korean leader to hold 2nd summit
By MATTHEW LEE and
DEB RIECHMANN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Presi-
dent Donald Trump will hold
a second summit with North
Korean leader Kim Jong
Un to try to broker a deal to
coax the North to give up its
nuclear weapons, the White
House announced Friday.
News of a second meeting
with the reclusive North
Korean leader came after
Trump’s 90-minute meeting
in the Oval Office with a
North Korean envoy, Kim
Yong Chol, who traveled to
Washington to discuss denu-
clearization talks. Trump
and Kim Jong Un are to meet
near the end of February
at a place to be announced
later, said White House press
secretary Sarah Huckabee
Sanders.
“The United States is
going to continue to keep
pressure and sanctions on
North Korea until we see
fully and verified denucle-
arization,” Sanders said
“We’ve had very good steps
and good faith from the
North Koreans in releasing
the hostages and other
moves. And so we’re going
to continue those conversa-
tions and the president looks
forward to the next meeting.”
In May, North Korea
released three American
detainees and sent them
home with Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo after
his 90-minute meeting with
the North Korean leader in
Pyongyang.
The second summit
signals stepped-up efforts by
both countries to continue
talks. Trump has exchanged
multiple letters with the
North Korean leader amid
little tangible progress on
the vague denuclearization
agreement reached at their
first meeting last June in
Singapore.
On Friday, Pompeo met
with the North Korean envoy
at a Washington hotel before
the White House meeting
and the two had lunch
together afterward.
Trump has spoken several
times of having a second
summit early this year.
Vietnam has been consid-
ered as a possible summit
venue, along with Thailand,
Hawaii and Singapore.
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