Civic Register
| 2.21.19

What Do You Want Your Reps Asking Michael Cohen When He Testifies?

Do you support an oversight hearing with Cohen?

What’s the story?

  • President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, is set to testify in public before Congress on Wednesday.
  • Cohen, who’s also been called Trump’s “fixer,” is headed to prison in May after pleading guilty to campaign finance violations, including paying hush money to two women claiming to have had affairs with the president.
  • Cohen also plead guilty to lying to Congress and tax fraud.
  • Lanny Davis, Cohen’s lawyer, told ABC News that his client intends to share “personal, front-line experiences of memories, and incidents, and conduct, and comments that Donald Trump said over that 10-year time period behind closed doors.”

What are both sides saying?

  • “Congress has an obligation under the Constitution to conduct independent and robust oversight of the executive branch, and this hearing is one step in that process,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MA) said in a statement announcing the hearing.
  • Cummings outlined 10 topics in a memo that he hopes to address in the hearing, including “the president’s debts and payments relating to efforts to influence the 2016 election” and his compliance with federal tax and campaign finance laws.
  • Republicans on the panel have called Cohen “an admitted serial liar” and are accusing Democrats of putting on a political show.
  • “When Cohen appears before our committee, we can only assume that he will continue his pattern of deceit and perjury,” Republican Reps. Jim Jordan (OH) and Mark Meadows (NC) wrote.
“Although Cohen falsely attributes his crimes to ‘blind loyalty to Donald Trump,’ a federal judge correctly noted that Cohen’s crimes were all motivated by his personal greed and ambition.”

What do you think?

What do you want your reps asking Cohen? Is this about oversight or a political show? Take action and tell your reps what you want them asking Cohen, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman

(Photo Credit: @MichaelCohen212 via Twitter)