TRUMP’S FRIEND IS NOW HIS
ENEMY
There is no much information about Michael Dean Cohen personal
and marital life. All that is known about him is that he is a married man and
is living with his wife, who is of Ukrainian descent. There is no information
on his marital life about ups and down or about his children. Michael Dean
Cohen was until recently, the personal lawyer to US President Donald Trump.
Prior to this appointment he was executive Vice President of the Trump Organization and special counsel
to Trump. Cohen also previously served as co-president of Trump Entertainment and a member if the board of the Eric Trump Foundation, a children’s
health charity. He joined he Trump Organization after having been a partner at Philips Nizer law firm. His mother was a
nurse and his father was a surgeon. Cohen graduated from American University and the Thomas
M. Cooley law School.
Michael Cohen’s wife, Laura Shusterman Cohen,
has been standing by her husband’s side through everything that’s happened in
the past year. About a year ago, Michael Cohen’s office, the hotel where he was
staying, and home were raided by the FBI after prosecutors received a
referral from special counsel Robert Mueller. The raid was in connection to
several topics, including information related to Stormy Daniels. The longtime
personal lawyer of President Donald Trump has been in and out of the spotlight
ever since. Michael pleaded guilty in August 2018 to campaign finance
violations, tax fraud, and bank fraud. In November he entered a guilty plea for
lying to a Senate committee, and in December he was sentenced to three years in
prison. On February 28th, 2019, Michael Cohen testified to the House Oversight Committee about
President Donald Trump and their relationship. He released his opening
statement before he testified to the House Oversight Committee. In his
statement, he spoke lovingly about Laura and his children. What follows is his opening statement
with respect to his dealings with President Trump.
Chairman Cummings, Ranking Member
Jordan, and Members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me here today. I
have asked this Committee to ensure that my family be protected from
Presidential threats, and that the Committee be sensitive to the questions
pertaining to ongoing I have
asked this Committee to ensure that my family be protected from Presidential
threats, and that the Committee be sensitive to the questions pertaining to
ongoing investigations. Thank you for your help and for your understanding. I am here
under oath to correct the record, to answer the Committee’s questions
truthfully, and to offer the American people what I know about President TruI
recognize that some of you may doubt and attack me on my credibility. It is for
this reason that I have incorporated into this opening statement documents that
are irrefutable, and demonstrate that the information you will hear is accurate
and truthful. Never in a million years did I imagine, when I
accepted a job in 2007 to work for Donald Trump, that he would one day run for
President, launch a campaign on a platform of hate and intolerance, and
actually win. I regret the day I said “yes” to Mr. Trump. I regret all the help
and support I gave him along the way. I am ashamed of my own failings, and I publicly accepted
responsibility for them by pleading guilty in the Southern District of New
York. I am ashamed of my weakness and misplaced loyalty – of the things I did
for 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 acts rather than listening to my own conscience. He is a con man.
He is a cheat. He was a presidential candidate who
knew that Roger Stone was talking with Julian Assange about a WikiLeaks drop of
Democratic National Committee emails. I
am providing the Committee today with several documents. These include:• A copy
of a check Mr. Trump wrote from his personal bank account – after he became
president – to reimburse me for the hush money payments I made to cover up his
affair with an adult film star and prevent damage to his campaign, Copies of
financial statements for 2011 – 2013 that he gave to such institutions as
Deutsche Bank, A copy of an
article with Mr. Trump’s handwriting on it that reported on the auction of a
portrait of himself – he arranged for the bidder ahead of time and then
reimbursed the bidder from the account of his non-profit charitable foundation,
with the picture now hanging in one of his country clubs; and copies of letters
I wrote at Mr. Trump’s direction that threatened his high school, colleges, and
the College Board not to release his grades or SAT scores. I
hope my appearance here today, my guilty plea, and my work with law enforcement
agencies are steps along a path of redemption that will restore faith in me and
help this country understand our president better. Before going further, I want to apologize to each of you and to
Congress as a 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 Moscow Tower project in Russia. I stated that we stopped
negotiating in January 2016. That was false – our negotiations continued for
months later during the campaign.Mr. Trump did not directly tell me to lie to
Congress. That’s not how he operates In conversations we had during the campaign,. At the same
time I was actively negotiating in Russia for him, he would look me in the eye and tell
me there’s no business in Russia and then go out and lie to the American people
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 in January 2016 and the end of June (20016) when he would ask me “How’s it
going in Russia?” – referring to the Moscow Tower project. You need to know that
Mr. Trump’s personal lawyers reviewed and edited my statement to Congress about
the timing of the Moscow Tower negotiations before he (Cohen knew it' To
be clear: Mr. Trump knew of and directed the Trump Moscow negotiations
throughout the campaign and lied about it. He lied about it because he never
expected to win the election. He also lied about it because he stood to make
hundreds of millions of dollars on the Moscow real 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 and through his lies to the country, that he wanted me to
lie. And he made it clear to me because his personal attorneys reviewed my
statement before I gave it to Congress.
Even though the other lawyers edited his statement,
he knew it was a lie.
Over
the past two years, I have been smeared as “a rat” by the President of the
United States. The truth is much different, and let me take a brief moment to
introduce myself.I am Michael Dean Cohen and I am a blessed husband of 24 years
and a father to an incredible daughter and 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 throughout my 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 to protect you”. I
have always tried to live a life of loyalty, friendship, generosity, and
compassion – qualities my parents ingrained in my siblings and me since childhood.
My father survived the Holocaust thanks to the compassion and selfless acts of
others. He was helped by many who put themselves in harm’s way to do what they
knew was right.That is why my first instinct has always been to help those in
need. Mom and Dad…I am sorry that I let you down. As
many people that know me best would say, I am the person they would call at 3AM
if they needed help. I proudly remember being the emergency contact for many of
my children’s friends when they were growing up because their parents knew that
I would drop everything and care for them as if they were my own.
This last two statements were self-serving in his
attempt to get the members of the committee to feel sorry for him and believe
him as to what he was telling them.
Yet,
last fall I pled guilty in federal court to felonies for the benefit of, at the
direction 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 even more painful to admit that many times I
ignored my conscience and acted loyal to a man when I should not have. Sitting
here today, it seems unbelievable that I was so mesmerized by Donald Trump that
I was willing to do things for him that I knew were absolutely wrong. For that reason, I have come here to
apologize to my family, to the government, and to the American people. Accordingly, let me now tell you about
Mr. Trump. I got to know him very well, working very closely with him for more
than 10 years, as his Executive Vice President and Special Counsel and then
personal attorney when he became President. When I first met Mr. Trump, he was
a successful entrepreneur, a real estate giant, and an icon. Being around Mr.
Trump was intoxicating. When you were in his presence, you felt like you were
involved in something greater than yourself
that you were somehow changing the world. I 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, I worked
mostly on real estate developments and other business transactions. Shortly
thereafter, Mr. Trump brought me into his personal life and 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 and bad, as do we all. But the bad far
outweighs the good, and since taking office, he has become the worst version of
himself. He is capable of behaving kindly, but he is not kind. He is capable of
committing acts of generosity, but he is not generous. He is capable of being
loyal, but he is fundamentally disloyal. Donald
Trump is a man who ran for office to make his brand great, not to make 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 would often say,
this campaign was going to be the “greatest infomercial in political history. He
never expected to win the primary. He never expected to win the general
election. The campaign for him was always a marketing opportunity. I knew early
on in my work for Mr. Trump that he would direct me to lie to further his
business interests. I am ashamed to say, that when it was for a real estate
mogul in the private sector, I considered it trivial. As the President, I
consider it significant and dangerous. But in the mix, lying for Mr. Trump was
normalized, and no one around him questioned it. In fairness, no one around him
today questions it, either.
He has no way of knowing what others around Trump
believes.
A
lot of people have asked me about whether Mr. Trump knew about the release of
the hacked Democratic National Committee emails ahead of time. The answer is
yes. As I earlier stated, Mr. Trump knew from Roger Stone in advance about the
WikiLeaks drop of emails. In July 2016, days before the
Democratic convention, I was in Mr. Trump’s office when his secretary announced
that Roger Stone was on the phone. Mr. Trump put Mr. Stone on the speakerphone.
Mr. Stone told Mr. Trump that 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 a massive 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 white supremacists 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
that wasn’t a “shithole.” This was when Barack Obama was President of the
United States. While
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 they were 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 of President
Trump’s financial statements, from 2011-2013, which he gave to Deutsche Bank to
inquire about a loan to buy the Buffalo Bills and to Forbes. These are Exhibits
1a, 1b, and 1c to my testimony. It
was my experience that Mr. Trump inflated his total assets when it served his
purposes, such as trying to be listed among the wealthiest people in Forbes,
and deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes. I am sharing with you two newspaper articles, side by side, that
are examples of Mr. Trump inflating and deflating his assets, as I said, to
suit his financial interests. These are Exhibit 2 to my testimony. As I noted, I’m giving the Committee
today an article he wrote on, and sent me, that reported on an auction of a portrait
of Mr. Trump. This is Exhibit 3A to my testimony. Mr. Trump directed me to
find a straw bidder to purchase a portrait of him that was being auctioned at
an Art Hamptons Event. The objective was to ensure that his portrait, which was
going to be auctioned last and would go for the highest price of any portrait
that afternoon. The portrait was purchased by 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 common responsibilities was that Mr. Trump
directed me to call business owners, many of whom were small businesses, that
were owed money for their services and (he)
told them no payment or a reduced payment would be coming. When I advised Mr.
Trump of my success, he actually reveled in it. And yet, I continued to work
for him. Mr. Trump is a conman. He
asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair, and to lie
to his wife about it, which I did. Lying to the First Lady is one of my biggest
regrets. She is a kind, good person. I respect her greatly and she did not
deserve that. I
am giving the Committee today a copy of the $130,000 wire transfer from me to
Ms. Clifford’s attorney during the closing days of the presidential campaign
that was demanded by Ms. Clifford to maintain her silence about her affair with
Mr. Trump. This is Exhibit 4 to my testimony. Mr. Trump directed me to use
my own personal funds from a Home Equity Line of Credit to avoid any money
being traced back to him that could negatively impact his campaign. I did that,
too without bothering to consider whether that was improper, much less whether
it was the right thing 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 that payment 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 $35,000 check that President Trump personally signed from his
personal bank account 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, to
reimburse me the word used by Mr. Trump’s TV lawyer for the illegal hush money
I paid on his behalf. This $35,000 check was one of 11 check installments that
was paid throughout the year while he was President. The President of the United States thus wrote a
personal check for the payment of hush money as part of a criminal scheme to
violate campaign finance 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 of New 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 truly awe-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, your January and February reimbursement checks are coming. They were Fed- Exed from New York and it
takes a while for that to get through the White House system.” As he promised,
I received the first check for the reimbursement of $70,000 not long
thereafter. When
I say con man, I’m talking about a man who declares himself brilliant but
directed me to threaten his high school, his colleges, and the College Board to
never release his grades or SAT scores. As
I mentioned, I’m giving the Committee today copies of a letter I sent at Mr.
Trump’s direction threatening these schools with civil and criminal actions if
Mr. Trump’s grades or SAT scores were ever disclosed without his permission.
These are Exhibit 6.The irony wasn’t lost on me at the time that Mr. Trump in
2011 had strongly criticized President Obama for not releasing his grades. As
you can see in Exhibit 7, Mr. Trump declared “Let him show his records” after
calling President Obama “a terrible sudent.
student.” The sad fact is that I never
heard Mr. Trump say anything in private that led me to believe he loved our
nation or wanted to make it better. In fact, he did the opposite. When telling
me in 2008 that he was cutting employees’ salaries in half including mine and he showed me what he
claimed was a $10 million IRS tax refund, and he said that he could not believe
how stupid the government was for giving “someone like him” that much money
back. During
the campaign, Mr. Trump said he did not consider Vietnam Veteran, and Prisoner
of War, Senator John McCain to be “a hero” because he likes people who weren’t
captured. At the same time, Mr. Trump tasked me to handle the negative press
surrounding his medical deferment from the Vietnam draft. Mr. Trump claimed it
was because of a bone spur, but when I asked for medical records, he gave me
none and said there was no surgery. He told me not to answer the specific
questions by reporters but rather offer simply the fact that he received a
medical deferment. He finished the conversation with the following comment.
“You think I’m stupid, 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 that Mr. Trump or his
campaign colluded with Russia. I do not. I want to be clear. But, I have my
suspicions. Sometime in the
summer of 2017, I read all over the media that there had been a meeting in
Trump Tower in June 2016 involving Don Jr. and others from the campaign with
Russians, including a representative of the Russian government, and an email
setting up the meeting with the subject line, “Dirt on Hillary Clinton.”
Something clicked in my mind. I remember being in the room with Mr. Trump,
probably in early June 2016, when something peculiar happened. Don Jr. came
into the room and walked behind his father’s desk (in the Oval
Room) which in itself was unusual. People
didn’t just walk behind Mr. Trump’s desk to talk to him. I recalled Don Jr.
leaning over to his father and speaking in a low voice, which I could clearly
hear, and saying: “The meeting is all set.” I remember Mr. Trump saying, “Ok
good…let me know.” What
struck me as I looked back and thought about that exchange between Don Jr. and
his father was, first, that Mr. Trump had frequently told me and others that
his son Don Jr. had the worst judgment of anyone in the world. And also, that
Don Jr. would never set up any meeting of any significance alone and certainly
not without checking with his father. Trump’s knowledge and approval, so I
concluded that Don Jr. was referring to that June 2016 Trump Tower meeting
about dirt on Hillary with the Russian representative when he walked behind his
dad’s desk that day and that Mr. Trump knew that was the meeting Don Jr. was
talking 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 now that my ambition and the intoxication of
Trump power had much to do with the bad decisions I made. To you,
Chairman Cummings, Ranking Member Jordan, the other members of this Committee,
and the other members of the House and Senate, 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 truth about
Mr. Trump when you needed it most. For
those who question my motives for being here today, I understand. I have lied,
but I am not a liar. I have done bad things, but I am not a bad man. 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 tried so
hard to provid for my family. My testimony certainly does not diminish the
pain I caused my family and friends – nothing can do that. And I have never
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 me from appearing before
this panel. Mr. Trump called me a “rat” for choosing to tell the truth much
like a mobster would do when one of his men decides to cooperate with the
government. As Exhibit 8 shows, I have provided
the Committee with copies of Tweets that Mr. Trump posted, attacking me and my
family. Only someone burying his head in the sand would not recognize them for
what they are: encouragement to someone to do harm o me and my family. I never imagined that he would engage in vicious,
false attacks on my family – and unleash his TV-lawyer to do the same. I hope
this committee and 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
before congress and attacks on family are proof bounds and not acceptable. I wish to especially thank Speaker
Pelosi for her statements in Exhibit 9 to protect this institution and me, and
the Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Adam
Schiff and Chairman Cummings for likewise defending this institution and my
family against the attacks by Mr. Trump, and also the many Republicans who have
admonished the President as well. I am not a perfect man. I have done
things I am not proud of, and I will live with 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 I attempt to change how history will remember me. I may not be
able to change 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’s questions.
I believe this man’s statement. He is going to jail
for three years for previously lying to Congress. I can’t imagine that he would
risk having to serve another three years in prison for lying in this public
statement to the Congressional Committee.
Of course Trump will deny Cohen’s allegations but
he has lied to the public 3000 times since he has served as the president of
the United States. United States.
I wish for an hour, I was fly on the wall of the
room Trump was in while he was watching and hearing Cohen speak about his
allegations against Trump.
I am
convinced that Trump must have been squirming like a worm that is having a
fisherman’s hook stuck into its body.
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