Trump’s Former Lawyer: He’s Racist, Conman and A Cheat

US President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, is expected to give a behind-the-scenes account of what he will claim is Trump’s lying, racism and cheating, and possibly even criminal conduct, when he testifies publicly before a Congressional committee on Wednesday, according to a report Tuesday.

Trump’s former personal “fixer” will begin three days of congressional appearances on Tuesday in a closed-door interview with the Senate intelligence committee. The public won’t have a chance to hear from him until Wednesday, when he testifies before the House Oversight and Reform Committee. He will go behind closed doors again when he talks to the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday.

Cohen will provide the House Oversight and Reform Committee with what he will claim is evidence, in the form of documents, of Trump’s conduct, according to NBC News, citing a person with knowledge of the matter.

Cohen is expected to give investigators evidence of alleged criminal conduct by Trump that occurred after the president was sworn in to office on January 20, 2017, the station reported.
The source requested anonymity to discuss the confidential testimony.

As a close confidant of Trump for many years, Cohen’s testimony is among the most anticipated since the House and Senate started investigating the Trump campaign’s Russia ties two years ago. In addition to lying to Congress, Cohen pleaded guilty last year to campaign finance violations for his involvement in payments to two women who allege they had affairs with Trump. He is set to begin a three-year prison sentence in May.

Senators on the intelligence panel are expected to attend Tuesday’s meeting, a departure from the 
Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Richard Burr told The Associated Press that senators will have staff ask questions but will be in the room to observe. He said no topics will be off limits and Cohen “should expect to get any question from anywhere about anything.”

Burr said committee members know a lot more than they did when they first interviewed Cohen, who later pleaded guilty to lying to the House and Senate intelligence committees about abandoning a proposal for a Trump Tower in Moscow in January 2016. Cohen has since acknowledged he continued pursuing the project for months after that.

Burr suggested that the committee will take steps to ensure Cohen is telling the truth.

“I’m sure there will be some questions we know the answers to, so we’ll test him to see whether in fact he’ll be truthful this time,” Burr said.