Cummings says new evidence shows Trump's lawyers may have misled ethics officials

February 16, 2019, 00:55 GMT

By Mike Memoli

WASHINGTON – A few weeks before Michael Cohen reports to a federal prison for charges related to hidden sums he confessed to having committed as a personal attorney to President Donald Trump, a great congressional Democrat revealed that he had uncovered new information suggesting that other Trump's lawyers had misled those in charge of the ethic. .

In separate letters addressed to White House and Trump organization lawyers on Friday, House Review Committee Chair Elijah Cummings renewed his request for Cohen-related material in his investigation. on payments to Cohen to help silence women alleging extramarital affairs with Trump. .

In his letter to the White House, Cummings says the requested documents are "even more critical", given new information obtained from the Office of Government Ethics, an executive agency, "which describe false information provided by the lawyers representing President Trump ".

Cummings writes that these documents include notes by EMB officials describing what they described as "evolutionary stories" provided by Trump's personal attorney and White House lawyers about whether Trump ordered Cohen to make the payments and whether he reimbursed them. Initially, EMB officials had taught Trump that he owed nothing to Cohen, but that changed after Rudy Giuliani revealed in a TV interview that Trump had made payments to Cohen in the US. framework of a "mandate" contract.

"Now it seems that President Trump's other lawyers – in the White House and in the private sector – have been able to provide false information about these payments to federal officials," Cummings said in a statement. "This raises important questions as to why some of the closest advisers to the President made these false statements and to the extent to which they were also acting under the direction of or in coordination with the President."

Stefan Passantino, then at the White House, told OGE that Cohen had been authorized to make payments under the agreement "in [the] course of legal services "he provided. The OGE officials, however, were informed that they could not consult the service contract to verify the agreement.

Federal prosecutors eventually declared in Cohen's plea agreement that there was no warrant agreement, and Cohen admitted to making payments "at the request of the individual."

In his letter to the White House and the Trump Organization, Cummings insisted that they comply with a previous request for documents related to the issue by Feb. 22, or reserved the right to enforce compliance. , probably through a subpoena.