Michael Cohen Plans to Call Trump a ‘Con Man’ and a ‘Cheat’ in Congressional Testimony
WASHINGTON — Michael D. Cohen plans to testify on Wednesday that President Trump is a “con man” and a “cheat” who knew a longtime adviser was communicating with WikiLeaks — and who implicitly instructed Mr. Cohen to lie about a Trump Tower project in Moscow that was underway during the 2016 presidential campaign.
The extraordinary testimony will take place when Mr. Cohen, the president’s former lawyer and fixer, publicly appears before the House Oversight and Reform Committee. A copy of Mr. Cohen’s opening statement was provided to The New York Times.
“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,” Mr. Cohen plans to say. “In his way, he was telling me to lie.”
He will add: “Mr. Trump did not directly tell me to lie to Congress. That’s not how he operates.”
Mr. Cohen will also tell Congress that Mr. Trump had advanced knowledge through his longtime adviser, Roger J. Stone Jr., that WikiLeaks would publish hacked emails from the campaign of his opponent, Hillary Clinton.
“As I earlier stated, Mr. Trump knew from Roger Stone in advance about the WikiLeaks drop of emails,” Mr. Cohen will say.
“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,” his written remarks say. “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. Stone, who was recently indicted on charges that include witness tampering and false statements to Congress, has denied to reporters that such a conversation took place.
Mr. Cohen also plans to say that as a candidate, Mr. Trump directed him to write letters to his high school, college and other entities threatening them not to release transcripts of his standardized test scores.
Mr. Cohen and his lawyer and adviser, Lanny J. Davis, did not immediately reply to requests for comment.