TESTIMONY OF MICHAEL D. COHENCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND...

TESTIMONY OF MICHAEL D. COHENCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND REFORMU.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESFEBRUARY 27,
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2019Chairman Cummings, Ranking Member Jordan, and Members of theCommittee, thank you for inviting me here today.I have asked this Committee to ensure that my family be protected fromPresidential threats, and that the Committee be sensitive to the questionspertaining to ongoing investigations. Thank you for your help and for yourunderstanding.I am here under oath to correct the record, to answer the Committee’squestions truthfully, and to offer the American people what I know aboutPresident Trump.I recognize that some of you may doubt and attack me on my credibility. Itis for this reason that I have incorporated into this opening statementdocuments that are irrefutable, and demonstrate that the information youwill hear is accurate and truthful.Never in a million years did I imagine, when I accepted a job in 2007 towork for Donald Trump, that he would one day run for President, launch a 2campaign on a platform of hate and intolerance, and actually win. I regretthe day I said “yes” to Mr. Trump. I regret all the help and support I gavehim along the way.I am ashamed of my own failings, and I publicly accepted responsibility forthem by pleading guilty in the Southern District of New York.I am ashamed of my weakness and misplaced loyalty – of the things I didfor Mr. Trump in an effort to protect and promote him.I am ashamed that I chose to take part in concealing Mr. Trump’s illicit actsrather than listening to my own conscience.I am ashamed because I know what Mr. Trump is.He is a racist.He is a conman.He is a cheat.He was a presidential candidate who knew that Roger Stone was talkingwith Julian Assange about a WikiLeaks drop of Democratic NationalCommittee emails.3I will explain each in a few moments.I am providing the Committee today with several documents. Theseinclude:• A copy of a check Mr. Trump wrote from his personal bankaccount – after he became president - to reimburse me for thehush money payments I made to cover up his affair with an adultfilm star and prevent damage to his campaign;• Copies of financial statements for 2011 – 2013 that he gave tosuch institutions as Deutsche Bank;• A copy of an article with Mr. Trump’s handwriting on it thatreported on the auction of a portrait of himself – he arranged forthe bidder ahead of time and then reimbursed the bidder from theaccount of his non-profit charitable foundation, with the picturenow hanging in one of his country clubs; and• Copies of letters I wrote at Mr. Trump’s direction that threatenedhis high school, colleges, and the College Board not to release hisgrades or SAT scores.4I hope my appearance here today, my guilty plea, and my work with lawenforcement agencies are steps along a path of redemption that will restorefaith in me and help this country understand our president better.***Before going further, I want to apologize to each of you and to Congress asa whole.The last time I appeared before Congress, I came to protect Mr. Trump.Today, I’m here to tell the truth about Mr. Trump.I lied to Congress about when Mr. Trump stopped negotiating the MoscowTower project in Russia. I stated that we stopped negotiating in January2016. That was false – our negotiations continued for months later duringthe campaign.Mr. Trump did not directly tell me to lie to Congress. That’s not how heoperates.In conversations we had during the campaign, at the same time I wasactively negotiating in Russia for him, he would look me in the eye and tell 5me there’s no business in Russia and then go out and lie to the Americanpeople by saying the same thing. In his way, he was telling me to lie.There were at least a half-dozen times between the Iowa Caucus inJanuary 2016 and the end of June when he would ask me “How’s it goingin Russia?” – referring to the Moscow Tower project.You need to know that Mr. Trump’s personal lawyers reviewed and editedmy statement to Congress about the timing of the Moscow Towernegotiations before I gave it.To be clear: Mr. Trump knew of and directed the Trump Moscownegotiations throughout the campaign and lied about it. He lied about itbecause he never expected to win the election. He also lied about itbecause he stood to make hundreds of millions of dollars on the Moscowreal estate project.And so 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 andthrough his lies to the country, that he wanted me to lie. And he made it 6clear to me because his personal attorneys reviewed my statement before Igave it to Congress.****Over the past two years, I have been smeared as “a rat” by the President ofthe United States. The truth is much different, and let me take a briefmoment to introduce myself.My name is Michael Dean Cohen.I am a blessed husband of 24 years and a father to an incredible daughterand son. When I married my wife, I promised her that I would love her,cherish her, and protect her. As my father said countless times throughoutmy childhood, “you my wife, and you my children, are the air that I breathe.”To my Laura, my Sami, and my Jake, there is nothing I wouldn’t do toprotect you.I have always tried to live a life of loyalty, friendship, generosity, andcompassion – qualities my parents ingrained in my siblings and me sincechildhood. My father survived the Holocaust thanks to the compassion andselfless acts of others. He was helped by many who put themselves inharm’s way to do what they knew was right. 7That is why my first instinct has always been to help those in need. Momand Dad…I am sorry that I let you down.As many people that know me best would say, I am the person they wouldcall at 3AM if they needed help. I proudly remember being the emergencycontact for many of my children’s friends when they were growing upbecause their parents knew that I would drop everything and care for themas if they were my own.Yet, last fall I pled guilty in federal court to felonies for the benefit of, at thedirection of, and in coordination with Individual #1.For the record: Individual #1 is President Donald J. Trump.It is painful to admit that I was motivated by ambition at times. It is evenmore painful to admit that many times I ignored my conscience and actedloyal to a man when I should not have. Sitting here today, it seemsunbelievable that I was so mesmerized by Donald Trump that I was willingto do things for him that I knew were absolutely wrong.For that reason, I have come here to apologize to my family, to thegovernment, and to the American people.***8Accordingly, let me now tell you about Mr. Trump.I got to know him very well, working very closely with him for more than 10years, as his Executive Vice President and Special Counsel and thenpersonal attorney when he became President. When I first met Mr. Trump,he was a successful entrepreneur, a real estate giant, and an icon. Beingaround Mr. Trump was intoxicating. When you were in his presence, youfelt like you were involved in something greater than yourself -- that youwere somehow changing the world.I wound up touting the Trump narrative for over a decade. That was my job.Always stay on message. Always defend. It monopolized my life. At first, Iworked mostly on real estate developments and other businesstransactions. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Trump brought me into his personal lifeand private dealings. Over time, I saw his true character revealed.Mr. Trump is an enigma. He is complicated, as am I. He has both good andbad, as do we all. But the bad far outweighs the good, and since takingoffice, he has become the worst version of himself. He is capable ofbehaving kindly, but he is not kind. He is capable of committing acts ofgenerosity, but he is not generous. He is capable of being loyal, but he isfundamentally disloyal.9Donald Trump is a man who ran for office to make his brand great, not tomake our country great. He had no desire or intention to lead this nation –only to market himself and to build his wealth and power. Mr. Trump wouldoften say, this campaign was going to be the “greatest infomercial inpolitical history.”He never expected to win the primary. He never expected to win thegeneral election. The campaign – for him – was always a marketingopportunity.I knew early on in my work for Mr. Trump that he would direct me to lie tofurther his business interests. I am ashamed to say, that when it was for areal estate mogul in the private sector, I considered it trivial. As thePresident, I consider it significant and dangerous.But in the mix, lying for Mr. Trump was normalized, and no one around himquestioned it. In fairness, no one around him today questions it, either.A lot of people have asked me about whether Mr. Trump knew about therelease of the hacked Democratic National Committee emails ahead oftime. The answer is yes.10As I earlier stated, Mr. Trump knew from Roger Stone in advance about theWikiLeaks drop of emails.In July 2016, days before the Democratic convention, I was in Mr. Trump’soffice when his secretary announced that Roger Stone was on the phone.Mr. Trump put Mr. Stone on the speakerphone. Mr. Stone told Mr. Trumpthat 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 amassive dump of emails that would damage Hillary Clinton’s campaign.Mr. Trump responded by stating to the effect of “wouldn’t that be great.”Mr. Trump is a racist. The country has seen Mr. Trump court whitesupremacists and bigots. You have heard him call poorer countries“shitholes.”In private, he is even worse.He once asked me if I could name a country run by a black person thatwasn’t a “shithole.” This was when Barack Obama was President of theUnited States. 11While we were once driving through a struggling neighborhood in Chicago,he commented that only black people could live that way.And, he told me that black people would never vote for him because theywere too stupid.And yet I continued to work for him.Mr. Trump is a cheat.As previously stated, I’m giving the Committee today three years ofPresident Trump’s financial statements, from 2011-2013, which he gave toDeutsche Bank to inquire about a loan to buy the Buffalo Bills and toForbes. These are Exhibits 1a, 1b, and 1c to my testimony.It was my experience that Mr. Trump inflated his total assets when it servedhis purposes, such as trying to be listed among the wealthiest people inForbes, and deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes.I am sharing with you two newspaper articles, side by side, that areexamples of Mr. Trump inflating and deflating his assets, as I said, to suithis financial interests. These are Exhibit 2 to my testimony.12As I noted, I’m giving the Committee today an article he wrote on, and sentme, that reported on an auction of a portrait of Mr. Trump. This is Exhibit3A to my testimony.Mr. Trump directed me to find a straw bidder to purchase a portrait of himthat was being auctioned at an Art Hamptons Event. The objective was toensure that his portrait, which was going to be auctioned last, would go forthe highest price of any portrait that afternoon. The portrait was purchasedby the fake bidder for $60,000. Mr. Trump directed the Trump Foundation,which is supposed to be a charitable organization, to repay the fake bidder,despite keeping the art for himself. Please see Exhibit 3B to my testimony.And it should come as no surprise that one of my more commonresponsibilities was that Mr. Trump directed me to call business owners,many of whom were small businesses, that were owed money for theirservices and told them no payment or a reduced payment would becoming. When I advised Mr. Trump of my success, he actually reveled in it.And yet, I continued to work for him. 13Mr. Trump is a conman.He asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair, andto lie to his wife about it, which I did. Lying to the First Lady is one of mybiggest regrets. She is a kind, good person. I respect her greatly – and shedid not deserve that.I am giving the Committee today a copy of the $130,000 wire transfer fromme to Ms. Clifford’s attorney during the closing days of the presidentialcampaign that was demanded by Ms. Clifford to maintain her silence abouther affair with Mr. Trump. This is Exhibit 4 to my testimony.Mr. Trump directed me to use my own personal funds from a Home EquityLine of Credit to avoid any money being traced back to him that couldnegatively impact his campaign. I did that, too – without bothering toconsider whether that was improper, much less whether it was the rightthing to do or how it would impact me, my family, or the public.I am going to jail in part because of my decision to help Mr. Trump hide thatpayment from the American people before they voted a few days later.As Exhibit 5 to my testimony shows, I am providing a copy of a $35,000check that President Trump personally signed from his personal bank 14account on August 1, 2017 – when he was President of the United States –pursuant to the cover-up, which was the basis of my guilty plea, toreimburse me – the word used by Mr. Trump’s TV lawyer -- for the illegalhush money I paid on his behalf. This $35,000 check was one of 11 checkinstallments that was paid throughout the year – while he was President.The President of the United States thus wrote a personal check for thepayment of hush money as part of a criminal scheme to violate campaignfinance laws. You can find the details of that scheme, directed by Mr.Trump, in the pleadings in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District ofNew York.So picture this scene – in February 2017, one month into his presidency,I’m visiting President Trump in the Oval Office for the first time. It’s trulyawe-inspiring, he’s showing me around and pointing to different paintings,and he says to me something to the effect of…Don’t worry, Michael, yourJanuary and February reimbursement checks are coming. They were FedExed from New York and it takes a while for that to get through the WhiteHouse system. As he promised, I received the first check for thereimbursement of $70,000 not long thereafter.15When I say conman, I’m talking about a man who declares himself brilliantbut directed me to threaten his high school, his colleges, and the CollegeBoard to never release his grades or SAT scores.As I mentioned, I’m giving the Committee today copies of a letter I sent atMr. Trump’s direction threatening these schools with civil and criminalactions if Mr. Trump’s grades or SAT scores were ever disclosed withouthis permission. These are Exhibit 6.The irony wasn’t lost on me at the time that Mr. Trump in 2011 had stronglycriticized President Obama for not releasing his grades. As you can see inExhibit 7, Mr. Trump declared “Let him show his records” after callingPresident Obama “a terrible student.”The sad fact is that I never heard Mr. Trump say anything in private that ledme to believe he loved our nation or wanted to make it better. In fact, he didthe opposite.When telling me in 2008 that he was cutting employees’ salaries in half –including mine – he showed me what he claimed was a $10 million IRS taxrefund, and he said that he could not believe how stupid the governmentwas for giving “someone like him” that much money back. 16During the campaign, Mr. Trump said he did not consider Vietnam Veteran,and Prisoner of War, Senator John McCain to be “a hero” because he likespeople who weren’t captured. At the same time, Mr. Trump tasked me tohandle the negative press surrounding his medical deferment from theVietnam draft.Mr. Trump claimed it was because of a bone spur, but when I asked formedical records, he gave me none and said there was no surgery. He toldme not to answer the specific questions by reporters but rather offer simplythe fact that he received a medical deferment.He finished the conversation with the following comment. “You think I’mstupid, I wasn’t going to Vietnam.”I find it ironic, President Trump, that you are in Vietnam right now.And yet, I continued to work for him.***Questions have been raised about whether I know of direct evidence thatMr. Trump or his campaign colluded with Russia. I do not. I want to beclear. But, I have my suspicions.17Sometime in the summer of 2017, I read all over the media that there hadbeen a meeting in Trump Tower in June 2016 involving Don Jr. and othersfrom the campaign with Russians, including a representative of the Russiangovernment, and an email setting up the meeting with the subject line, “Dirton Hillary Clinton.” Something clicked in my mind. I remember being in theroom with Mr. Trump, probably in early June 2016, when somethingpeculiar happened. Don Jr. came into the room and walked behind hisfather’s desk – which in itself was unusual. People didn’t just walk behindMr. Trump’s desk to talk to him. I recalled Don Jr. leaning over to his fatherand speaking in a low voice, which I could clearly hear, and saying: “Themeeting is all set.” I remember Mr. Trump saying, “Ok good…let meknow.”What struck me as I looked back and thought about that exchange betweenDon Jr. and his father was, first, that Mr. Trump had frequently told me andothers that his son Don Jr. had the worst judgment of anyone in theworld. And also, that Don Jr. would never set up any meeting of anysignificance alone – and certainly not without checking with his father.I also knew that nothing went on in Trump world, especially the campaign,without Mr. Trump’s knowledge and approval. So, I concluded that DonJr. was referring to that June 2016 Trump Tower meeting about dirt on 18Hillary with the Russian representative when he walked behind his dad’sdesk that day -- and that Mr. Trump knew that was the meeting Don Jr. wastalking about when he said, “That’s good…let me know.”***Over the past year or so, I have done some real soul searching. I see nowthat my ambition and the intoxication of Trump power had much to do withthe bad decisions I made.To you, Chairman Cummings, Ranking Member Jordan, the othermembers of this Committee, and the other members of the House andSenate, I am sorry for my lies and for lying to Congress.To our nation, I am sorry for actively working to hide from you the truthabout Mr. Trump when you needed it most.For those who question my motives for being here today, I understand. Ihave lied, but I am not a liar. I have done bad things, but I am not a badman. I have fixed things, but I am no longer your “fixer,” Mr. Trump.I am going to prison and have shattered the safety and security that I triedso hard to provide for my family. My testimony certainly does not diminish19the pain I caused my family and friends – nothing can do that. And I havenever asked for, nor would I accept, a pardon from President Trump.And, by coming today, I have caused my family to be the target of personal,scurrilous attacks by the President and his lawyer – trying to intimidate mefrom appearing before this panel. Mr. Trump called me a “rat” for choosingto tell the truth – much like a mobster would do when one of his mendecides to cooperate with the government.As Exhibit 8 shows, I have provided the Committee with copies of Tweetsthat Mr. Trump posted, attacking me and my family – only someone buryinghis head in the sand would not recognize them for what they are:encouragement to someone to do harm to me and my family.I never imagined that he would engage in vicious, false attacks on myfamily – and unleash his TV-lawyer to do the same. I hope this committeeand all members of Congress on both sides of the aisle will make it clear:As a nation, we should not tolerate attempts to intimidate witnesses beforecongress and attacks on family are out of bounds and not acceptable.I wish to especially thank Speaker Pelosi for her statements in Exhibit 9 toprotect this institution and me, and the Chairman of the House Permanent 20Select Committee on Intelligence Adam Schiff and Chairman Cummings forlikewise defending this institution and my family against the attacks by Mr.Trump, and also the many Republicans who have admonished thePresident as well.I am not a perfect man. I have done things I am not proud of, and I will livewith the consequences of my actions for the rest of my life.But today, I get to decide the example I set for my children and how Iattempt to change how history will remember me. I may not be able tochange the past, but I can do right by the American people here today.Thank you for your attention. I am happy to answer the Committee’squestions