Cohen testimony: Trump’s ex-lawyer claims ‘criminal conspiracy’ and gives dire warning to Congress in public testimony

Cohen said he is worried that there will 'never be another peaceful transfer of power' if Mr Trump loses re-election in 2020

Michael Cohen says he cannot discuss that last contact he had with Trump, as it is being investigated by the Southern District of New York

Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s ex-lawyer, has given dramatic testimony before the House Oversight Committee, were he discussed a criminal conspiracy involving the president, his oldest son Donald Trump Jr, and the chief financial officer of the Trump Organisation, Allen Weisselberg — and then cast the president as an existential threat to American democracy.

During one particularly notable exchange, Cohen was asked by Democratic Representative Ro Khanna about a cheque making a payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, which he called a "smoking gun" that proves several individuals were involved in the conspiracy.

"Are you telling us, Mr Cohen, that the president directed transactions in conspiracy with Allen Weisselberg and his son, Donald Trump Jr, as part of a criminal conspiracy of financial fraud?" Mr Khanna asked in relation to the cheque. "Is that your testimony today?"

"Yes," Cohen said.

Cohen, who will serve a three year prison sentence starting in May, said during his testimony that he believes the US is at a critical juncture in its history. Mr Trump, a man who Cohen once said he would take a bullet for, is a threat to American democracy, he said.

"If he loses the [2020] election, I worry there would never be a peaceful transition of power," he said.

Throughout his hours-long testimony on Wednesday, Cohen said that he is remorseful for ever allowing himself to end up in Mr Trump's inner circle. Cohen, who worked as the president's private attorney for a decade said that he had caused considerable damage to his family and reputation — and repeatedly apologised even as Republicans questioned why they should believe his testimony given he pleaded guilty to lying to Congress once before already.

“I am ashamed that I chose to take part in concealing Mr Trump’s illicit acts rather than listening to my own conscience,” Cohen said.

Cohen also suggested that the president was aware that political consultant Roger Stone was in discussion with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange about the site’s access to stolen Democratic National Committee emails.

The president's former personal attorney said that he was in a room when Mr Stone told Mr Trump about the leaks, and that nobody made an effort to contact the FBI regarding those leaks.

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Key Points

• Michael Cohen has testified before the House Oversight Committee — and says the president and his oldest son are implicated in 'garden variety' financial fraud
• Cohen has discussed the timeline of the DNC email hacks
• Ex-lawyer brands Trump 'a racist, a conman and cheat'— and says he 'threatened' people for the president hundreds of times
• Says president knew about Roger Stone activities and Trump Tower meeting
• Cohen says he is worried there will 'never be a peaceful transfer of power' if Trump loses in 2020

[27 February 2019 09:57 · Joe Sommerlad]

Here's Trump on the Vietnam War, a conflict he avoided being drafted for because of "bone spurs", which Cohen suggests was a bogus claim.

"You think I'm stupid, I wasn't going to Vietnam," he told his former confidant. Yikes.

Worth remembering that the president's grandfather, German immigrant Frederick Drumpf, arrived in New York in October 1885 from Kallstadt as a 16-year-old boy seeking to evade military conscription in his homeland.

The president is of course in Vietnam right now to meet Mr Kim, an irony not lost on satirists at The Onion.

[27 February 2019 10:24 · Joe Sommerlad]

Given the below, this attack on Connecticut senator Richard Blumenthal - accused of misrepresenting his military career to suggest he had served in the Vietnam War during a 2010 Senate run, when he had actually received five draft deferments (just as Trump himself did) - is particularly hypocritical.

That tweet appears to be a response to this, in which Senator Blumenthal condemned President Trump's national emergency declaration in strong terms.

[27 February 2019 10:33 · Joe Sommerlad]

All this and we haven't had time to mention the fact that Florida congressman and Trump ally Matt Gaetz threatened Michael Cohen on Twitter last night.

"Hey @MichaelCohen212, do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I wonder if she'll remain faithful when you're in prison. She's about to learn a lot..."

After writing the above, he told reporters he was not witness-tampering, but "witness-testing".

Representative Gaetz has since deleted the above and responded to a thinly-veiled rebuke from House speaker Nancy Pelosi.

CNN's Chris Cillizza calls the tweet "thuggery that should be beneath even someone as brazenly political and calculating as Gaetz", pointing to his fondness for deep state conspiracy theories and a GQ profile from last year that called him "the Trumpiest Congressman in Trump's Washington" for his blind loyalty to the president.

Mr Trump's opinion of Gaetz?

Michael Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis said of last night's incident:

"We will not respond to Mr. Gaetz's despicable lies and personal smears, except to say we trust that his colleagues in the House, both Republicans and Democrats, will repudiate his words and his conduct.

"I also trust that his constituents will not appreciate that their congressman has set a new low, which in today's political culture is hard to imagine as possible."

[27 February 2019 10:50 · Joe Sommerlad]

A few other Trump-related bits to catch up on.

The president has praised his "friend" Kim Jong-un ahead of their meeting in Hanoi today, ignoring Pyongyang's wretched human rights record. Andrew Buncombe has this.

[27 February 2019 10:55 · Joe Sommerlad]

You can follow dedicated live coverage of the Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi with Harry Cockburn below:

[27 February 2019 11:10 · Joe Sommerlad]

Yesterday, which already feels like a millennia ago, House Democrats voted in favour of opposing President Trump's national emergency declaration on the illegal immigration "crisis" at the southwestern border.

The move granted Mr Trump special executive powers to bypass Congress and reallocate federal funding to get his Mexico border wall built.

The resolution will now go before the Senate, where only a handful of Republican defections would be needed to see it passed and presented to the Oval Office, where the president would be forced to veto it at great personal cost to his credibility.

Here's Clark Mindock.

[27 February 2019 11:20 · Joe Sommerlad]

Also yesterday, Democratic representatives Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan became the first congressional lawmakers to sign a pledge to impeach President Trump on behalf of advocacy group By The People.

“This is not an issue of Republicans vs. Democrats,” its spokesperson Alexandra Flores-Quilty said in a statement.

“It’s about checking the flagrant abuse of presidential power from a white supremacist who is profiting off of the presidential office, abusing his powers, and undermining our democracy and our Constitution.”

Here's Sarah Harvard.

[27 February 2019 11:31 · Joe Sommerlad]

Michael Cohen's date with the House Oversight Committee is set for 10am EST (3pm GMT) today.

Before then, here's some background reading on the would-be tough guy in the hot seat.

[27 February 2019 11:40 · Joe Sommerlad]

The story of a fat rat becoming stuck in a manhole cover in Germany is already being likened to Michael Cohen.

A suspiciously perfect, meme-ready story to have emerged today - no?

[27 February 2019 11:45 · Joe Sommerlad]

The fact that President Trump's meeting with Mr Kim in Vietnam, which has just taken place at the Metropole hotel in Hanoi, coincides with the Cohen testimony risks America's standing abroad, according to pundits.

“The real danger for US credibility and national security is the extent to which the Cohen testimony makes the American president look ridiculous and compromised around the world, which carefully consumes US political news,” says Benjamin J Rhodes, Barack Obama's former deputy national security adviser.

“At home, we can see these things as just another turn in the tabloid drama of the Trump presidency, but the cumulative impact abroad is a steady diminution of America’s standing.”