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Michael Cohen's accusations against President Donald Trump were raised during the first 30 minutes of Wednesday's congressional hearing. Congress members got little new information from the former lawyer and president of the president during the hours of testimony that followed his explosive opening statement.
Most Republicans used their time to pick up Cohen, thus portraying a "pathological liar" in search of revenge.
Most Democrats have put their questioning time in the rostrum and reaffirmed the evidence of the crimes alleged against the president.
None of these approaches resulted in substantial progress in what was supposed to be a search for truth.
Reporters and experts taken to Twitter throughout the day to criticize lawmakers for their behavior. They tweeted suggested questions and prayed committee members to do their job.
It seems that Ocasio-Cortez listened.
When she had five minutes of time for her interrogation by the end of the day, the first-year lawmaker plunged into a series of effective questions about the financial crimes Trump is accused of.
In just a few minutes, Ocasio-Cortez asked Cohen to explain how Trump could have deflated the value of his assets to pay less taxes and inflate them for insurance purposes. Cohen has appointed three men who would be associated with the National Enquirer and who hold potentially damaging information about the president. He named three Trump Organization leaders who could also be useful to the House Oversight Committee.
Ocasio-Cortez also pleaded for the Congress to investigate Trump's tax returns and financial information.
"Do you think we need to examine [Trump’s] financial statements and tax returns to compare them? "Ocasio-Cortez asked.
"Yes, and you'll find it at Trump Org." Says Cohen.
Read more: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley shared with Michael Cohen questions about Trump's taxes and foundation that could cause more problems for the president
& # 39; Can not disrespect & # 39;
These four minutes of interrogation were much appreciated by Ocasio-Cortez, including by some skeptics.
Legal experts say that the Congress has been prepared in an important way to summon new people to appear and information regarding financial crimes that Trump is accused of having committed.
"None of the representatives before it has bothered to prosecute in these areas," Jeffrey Cramer, a former federal prosecutor who spent 12 years at the Department of Justice, told INSIDER. "This lays the foundation for what every American should want – specifically, a critical review of the finances of the most powerful person in the world."
Patrick Cotter, a former federal attorney who was working with members of the team's special advocate Robert Mueller, called the Ocasio-Cortez interrogation "no new nor unexpected, but announcing permanently "in an email addressed to INSIDER.
The Washington Post fact finder, Glenn Kessler, who has already run into the law, m said legislators should follow the example of Ocasio-Cortez.
Ed Kilgore, columnist at New York Magazine wrote"I'm probably the last passenger to board the @AOC train, but her performance today was impossible not to respect." The New York Times on Thursday published an editorial titled "How Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez won the Cohen Hearing".
Ocasio-Cortez thanked her supporters and took the opportunity to credit her with her non-traditional training and her staff.
"Bartending + Waitressing (especially in New York) means you're talking to thousands of people over the years, forcing you to be excellent at reading, and perfecting an ultra-thin BS detector." tweeted. "This shows that what some people consider" unskilled work "can actually be anything but a thing."
Ocasio-Cortez knows his audience
Many lawmakers use Congressional hearings to make a name for themselves.
Senator Kamala Harris became famous nationally as a senator when she was cut off and reprimanded during her interrogation of Trump administration officials. GOP Senator Lindsey Graham was hailed by the right when he criticized the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh as the "most unethical sham" that He saw politics.
But Ocasio-Cortez already has a bigger name than most other lawmakers in Washington, and his audience on Twitter is second after the president.
Some said younger members, such as Ocasio-Cortez, did not need a platform during the hearings, in part because they did not communicate with their audience through television news. .
Read more: Fox News hosts accuse Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of "admitting the suicide of civilization" after congressional women wondered whether it was "ok to have children again" in the face of the threat of climate change
"When they need to get media attention, when they need to talk, they use social media, that's how they connect," Elie Mystal, commentator at Above the Law, tweeted about the freshmen democrats.
Ocasio-Cortez can reach millions of its supporters and influence news coverage through social media. She can also use congressional hearings to simply do her job.
The new Congressman probably also knew that everything she did or said at the hearing would attract a lot of attention – and that every word would be scrutinized, as her treatment by conservative media had shown.
She then said on Twitter that as a woman of color, she was held to a higher level.
"We are used to being held in a bar of diff to be doubted – to get new hoops thrown @ us last minute" she tweeted. "So we know how to play."
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