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We close our blog live for the evening. Thank you for staying with us today. If you missed a part of the action, catch up by browsing the blog to find key moments, heated exchanges and real-time analysis.
Watch the highlights below or check out the best lines of the audience here. See you all next time.
Here is an overview of what was said in the 2020 presidential democrat field and who kept silent:
Kirsten Gillibrand: Senator from New York wrote on Twitter that a presidential campaign "should never consist of plotting with foreign opponents to alter our elections. I just thought it went without saying. "
Her too tweeted screenshots Two articles, one entitled "Michael Cohen, Facing Difficult Questions from the House Oversight Committee". Gillibrand added his own opinion: "Elections matter."
Amy Klobuchar: Among the 2020 nominees, the Minnesota Senator made the most direct comments on the audience, highlighting several articles on Cohen's testimony on Twitter:This is a big deal: Michael Cohen said President Trump had been involved in a secret ploy. … It's even more serious: Cohen claimed that Trump knew in advance that the WikiLeaks anti-secret organization was planning to publish pirated emails from the Democratic National Committee. "She also tweeted about Cohen's acknowledgment that he" had lied to Congress under oath " Trump Tower project in Moscow.
Elizabeth Warren: The Massachusetts senator did not directly speak to Cohen, but she wrote an article about Medium at the hearing in which she swore, "If I'm elected president of the United States, the people involved in these acts will not be forgiven. " surveys. "
Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Julian Castro, John Delaney, Tulsi Gabbard, Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders were all active on Twitter, but they kept silent about Cohen's testimony.
Following the closing of Cohen's hearing, legal experts – as well as a former Trump campaign advisor – said they found Cohen a "credible" witness despite his own lies and crimes.
"I think Cohen seemed very credible," said Mimi Rocah, a former district attorney for the New York South District and a legal analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, in "Meet the Press Daily."
Rocah pointed out that Cohen had not "gone too far" in his testimony. "He tells us when he knows something and that he does not try to involve people in something that he can not," she said.
Sam Nunberg, a former advisor to Trump's 2016 campaign, agreed. He added that Trump "hated today more than losing the closure".
Ben Wittes, editor of Lawfare and a legal analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, said the fact that Cohen's testimony will help "create an agenda" for the next audit hearing.
"The committee receives a great deal of advice and guidance on who they should talk to," said Wittes. "They came out with a giant witness list."
Jay Sekulow, a member of Trump's legal team, rebuffed part of Cohen's testimony after the closing of the hearing.
"Today's testimony of Michael Cohen that the president's lawyers have changed or changed his statement to Congress to change the duration of the Trump Tower negotiations in Moscow is completely false," Sekulow said in a statement. a statement.
At a public hearing on Wednesday, Cohen testified that Sekulow was among the lawyers who had revised his previously prepared remarks to Congress about the Trump Organization's negotiations to build a Trump tower in Moscow and made changes to it. and additions. Cohen later pleaded guilty to having lied to Congress about these negotiations, claiming that he had done so to align with Trump's favorite narrative.
"You said you lied to Congress about Trump's negotiations for building his Moscow tower because he made it clear to you that he wanted you to lie," said the spokesman. the Republic, Jamie Raskin, D-Md. "One of the reasons you knew it was because Mr. Trump's personal attorneys reviewed and revised my statement to Congress on the timing of the Moscow Tower negotiations before I do not give it. "
"So it's a breathtaking statement and I just want to know more here," Raskin said. "Which particular lawyers have reviewed and revised your statement to the Congress on the negotiations of the Moscow Tower and have they made any changes to your statement?"
"Changes have been made, additions," replied Cohen. "Jay Sekulow for one."
Cohen added that "several changes" had been made, "including how we were going to handle this message, which was – the message being of course the length of time that the Trump Tower project in Moscow stayed alive."
Following the adjournment of the hearing, Cohen made a brief statement to the media gathered at Capitol Hill, without answering questions.
"Thank you all for being here today, I am honored, I thank President Cummings for giving me the opportunity to tell my truth and I hope that, as President Cummings said, this will help heal America, "Cohen said. .
Discover seven hours of testimony in three minutes by watching the video below.
In a brief closing statement, President Cummings made an urgent appeal for the normalcy and protection of American democracy after a heated, hour-long hearing of partisan clashes and targeted attacks against Cohen's credibility.
"You made a lot of mistakes, Mr. Cohen, and you admitted it. And you know what is the saddest part of all this? That very innocent people also suffer and you recognize it, it's your family, "Cummings said. "And you know that if, as a country, we do not give people the opportunity, after mistakes, to change their lives, many people would not succeed very well."
He added, "I want to thank you, I know it can be difficult, I know you're facing a lot of difficulties, I know you're worried about your family, but that's part of the fate and hopefully The, of this part of your destiny will lead to a better Micheal Cohen, a better Donald Trump, better United States of America and a better world. "
He took a separation ball over the Republican members of the committee who falsely claimed that it was the first hearing held since the House's control since Democrats won back the majority in the House. The first concerned the cost of prescription drugs, he said, mentioning a person who died because she was unable to pay for insulin. He noted that his committee had also held hearings on a number of topics, including the right to vote, before hearing Cohen on Wednesday.
"We can do more than one thing," he said. "And we have to get back to normal."
At the end of his public testimony, Cohen delivered a brief but moving statement in which he summarized his objections to the president and his fears for the future.
"I am afraid that if he loses the elections in 2020, there will never be a peaceful transition of power," he said of Trump.
He then went straight to the president, sometimes looking directly at the television cameras.
"We honor our veterans – even in the rain," said Cohen, citing a trip to France in which Trump chose not to participate in a WWI commemorative event. "You tell the truth, even when it does not expand."
"You do not attack the media and those who doubt what you do not like or what you do not want them to say, and you take responsibility for your own dirty deeds. You do not use the power of your destroy the credibility of those who speak against you.You do not separate families from each other and do not demonize those who are turning to America for a better life. You do not defame people according to the god they pray and you do not cuddle Finally, you do not close the government before Christmas and the New Year to simply appease your base.This behavior is rude, it denigrates the office from the president and is simply unimaginable.American.And it's not you, "he said.
"So, for those who support the President and his rhetoric as I have already done, I pray that the country will not make the same mistakes as me or pay the heavy price that my family and I pay. . "
Cohen then thanked President Cummings for his time.
Representative Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Sparked a lively exchange when she objected to Lynne Patton, HUD leader, appearing in the audience earlier Wednesday.
"Just to make a note, Mr. President, it's not because someone has a person of color, a black man who works for him, that he's not racist." And it is foolish that some would even say – the fact that somebody would actually want to use an accessory, a black woman, in this chamber, in this committee, is alone racist in itself, "said Tlaib.
Representative Mark Meadows, CR-N., Who had invited Patton to defend Trump against Cohen's accusation that the president is a racist, burst out with anger, demanding that the statement be struck from the record .
"I do not call that gentleman, Mr. Meadows, a racist for that, I say that's in itself a racist act," Tlaib replied.
Meadows asked President Elijah Cummings to vouch for him that he was not racist. The couple noted that they had a close relationship.
Tlaib finally apologized to Meadows, saying that she had no intention of making her believe that she was personally attacking him as a racist.
Representative Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., Also referred to the fact that Meadows had led Patton to refute the allegations of racism against Trump.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Asked Cohen if Trump had committed bank, tax and insurance fraud during a brief interrogation on Wednesday afternoon.
"To your knowledge, has the president ever provided inflated assets to an insurance company?" Ocasio-Cortez asked.
"Yes," replied Cohen.
"Who else knows that the president did that?" Ocasio-Cortez replied.
Cohen has appointed several executives of the Trump Organization, including Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg.
"Do you think we need to look at financial statements and tax returns to compare them?" Ocasio-Cortez asked.
"Yes," said Cohen.
Ocasio-Cortez finished his interrogation in his time.
Cohen said that he did not actually think that Trump's tax returns were being verified during the 2016 election, contrary to what Trump has long claimed.
"I asked for a copy of the audit so I could use it in my statements to the press, and I never got one," he said. the question of whether Trump's tax returns were, in fact, being verified by the IRS.
Trump refused to publish his tax returns while he was running because he had said he was under control. He never released them.
Trump is the only major candidate of the last 40 years not to disclose his tax returns.
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