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Tom Hamburger
An investigative journalist focused on the intersection of money and politics in Washington.
Michael Cohen, former long-time personal advocate of President Trump, has testified before a House committee during in camera hearings earlier this year that he had been charged by Trump's attorney Jay Sekulow, falsely claiming in a statement at the 2017 Congress that negotiations for the construction of a Trump tower in Moscow ended in January 2016, according to people close to his testimony.
In fact, Cohen later admitted that talks on the Moscow Tower were continuing in June of the year of presidential elections, after it became clear that Trump would be the GOP candidate. Cohen is serving a three-year prison sentence for lying to Congress, for financial crimes and election campaign violations.
Democrats in the House are currently considering whether Sekulow or other Trump lawyers played a role in forming Cohen's testimony in Congress. Cohen said he made this false statement to help hide the fact that Trump potentially had hundreds of millions of dollars at stake in a possible Russian project while he ran for president.
"We are trying to find out if anyone participated in the false testimony that Cohen gave to this committee," said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.). He did not specify who, if any, could have told Cohen to lie.
Jane Serene Raskin and Patrick Strawbridge, lawyers for Sekulow, said in a statement that "Cohen's alleged statements are more similar and confirm the submissions of the New York District District attorneys that his instinct to blame others is strong. & # 39; "
"Whether this committee or another committee relies on Michael Cohen's word for whatever reason – let alone trying to penetrate the solicitor-client privilege and discover the confidential communications of four respected lawyers – challenges the logic, the right well established and common sense, "they added.
It is unclear how much detailed knowledge Sekulow had on the timeline of Trump's most recent efforts to build a branded tower in Moscow, begun by Cohen in September 2015 and completed in June 2016, according to court documents. . Sekulow joined Trump's legal team after his election.
Cohen's claims about Sekulow are reflected in the transcripts of his February and March appearances before the House's intelligence panel, which could be released as early as Monday.
Cohen's in-camera testimony before the committee this month led Congress Democrats to pressure Sekulow and other Trump family lawyers involved in a joint defense agreement to get more information on the proceedings. that they carried out to prepare Cohen's statement in 2017. Schiff asked four lawyers to hand in documents and schedule interviews with the panel, claim that they have so far dismissed, calling him threat to the long-standing protection of communications between lawyers and their clients.
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In his public testimony before the House Oversight Committee in January, Cohen stated that "Mr. Trump's personal attorneys reviewed and corrected my statement to the Congress on the timing of the Moscow tower negotiations before I gave it.
Jay Sekulow, the president's personal attorney, described Cohen's allegations as "completely false". (Steve Helber / AP)
He accused Sekulow of having amended the 2017 declaration.
"There have been changes, additions, Jay Sekulow, among others," Cohen told the panel.
Sekulow denied Cohen's complaint at the time, calling these claims "completely false".
During his closed-door appearances before the House Intelligence Committee in February and March, Cohen was more specific, stating that Sekulow had told him that it would be important to use January 31, 2016 as a date. end of discussions on the Moscow project. people familiar with his testimony, who spoke under the condition of anonymity due to the ongoing investigation of the panel.
Sekulow told Cohen that the date was important because it took place before the February 1 caucus in Iowa, the opening contest for the White House race, Cohen told the committee.
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Asked about the story of Cohen's testimony in camera, Lanny Davis, Cohen's lawyer, said, "I can not disagree with that."
Despite Cohen's tradition of lying to Congress, senior Democratic House and Senate Intelligence Committee officials said they took his allegations seriously.
"It is true that one of the President's personal lawyers has encouraged or altered his testimony to give Congress a false date, that again proves that the President had a reason not to to want the American people, or the Senate, to be informed of the truth about their relations with Russia as a candidate, "said Senator Mark R. Warner of Virginia, senior official of the Democrats on the Intelligence Committee, in a statement of the Senate.
Cohen's assertions were reviewed by the special advocate Robert S. Mueller III, who sought to question one of Trump's personal attorneys about the interactions he had with Cohen about the testimony of 2017, without success.
According to Mueller's report, Cohen frequently spoke to a Trump lawyer a few days before making his statement to Congress on August 28, 2017. Trump's lawyer was not named in the report.
Cohen told investigators that he remembered telling the president's attorney that the statement did not reflect the extent of the communications with Russia and Trump about the Moscow project.
Trump's attorney told Cohen that it was not necessary to include other details in the statement, which he said needed to remain "close." Cohen told the investigators that he also remembered that the lawyer had told him that "his client" was grateful to Cohen and that he was to stay. message and not contradict the president, according to the report.
Mueller's team sought to talk to Trump's lawyer about conversations with Cohen, "but the lawyer refused, citing potential concerns about privilege," according to the report.
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Cohen's claims led Schiff to seek information from Sekulow and three other lawyers who played a role in Cohen's testimony in 2017: Abbe Lowell, lawyer for Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump; Alan Futerfas, lawyer for Donald Trump Jr .; and Alan Garten, a lawyer for the Trump Organization.
The four lawyers stated that they could not respond to Schiff's requests because of solicitor-client privilege, which prevented them from discussing confidential conversations.
Schiff promised to go ahead, threatening to issue a subpoena for the lawyers' cooperation if needed, noting that they were encouraged to encourage Cohen's first testimony.
"Cohen himself has little to lose by lying on our committee," Schiff told the Washington Post. "Donald Trump and the others around him have much more to gain from being hidden by our investigation. This obviously raises the question of whether it is something he has done himself. . . or were there other people who participated in the lie before our committee?
Schiff also warned that the claim of privilege might not allow lawyers to avoid testifying before its committee.
"The privilege does not apply if it is used to conceal a crime or fraud," he said. "And if the lawyers discussed with each other and Mr. Cohen about a false statement they were going to make to our committee, no privilege would protect that kind of behavior."
In a letter to Schiff on Friday, lawyers for Trump's four lawyers expressed dismay at his efforts to coerce their testimony.
"We believe that the committee's categorical refusal to recognize solicitor-client privilege – a centuries-old fundamental principle of common law – is staggering, reckless and unjustified," they wrote.
They called the investigation "an attempt to pursue a judicial inquiry outside the constitutional power of the legislature."
Schiff also expressed interest in hearing about Felix Sater, a Trump business partner who was working on the Russian side of the Trump Tower proposal in Moscow in 2016.
Cohen's lawyers stated that it appeared that Sater and his lawyer, Robert Wolf, had reviewed Cohen's testimony before it was submitted to Congress in 2017, according to the documents that they had examined. Sater's participation cancels any claim of privilege, said Cohen's lawyers.
"Because it seems like the draft statement was shared with two unprivileged people – Mr. Sater and his lawyer – the privilege of the joint defense was, in our view, lifted," said Davis, one of the two defense lawyers representing Cohen.
Sater and Cohen had discussions about the Moscow project until June 2016, but Sater did not correct Cohen's initial assertion in front of Congress that the project had ended in January.
Sater refused to comment on the questions relating to Cohen's testimony, but he said he was ready to cooperate with Schiff's investigations.
"I have always cooperated with the US government and I look forward to continuing cooperation," Sater said. "I will make myself available to the committee of Congressman Schiff or any other committee if they deem it necessary."
Alice Crites and Rosalind S. Helderman contributed to this report.
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