>> we see michael cohen that started working with the president in 2007 entering into the rayburn house office building to take questions. you can see there are many people in the hearing room with many people outside of the room trying to get a glimpse of what is a historic moment. this is someone inside the inner circle and a fixer for the president and less than two years ago michael cohen said he would take a bullet for the president and today michael cohen will deliver the bullet in the heart of the investigation into the president if deemed credible and if they can cooperate many of the charges made today. you mentioned earlier and incredible details on what he alleges as the depth of lies, and says he continuously underestimated the taxes for the purpose of essentially paying less in taxes.

>> reporter: with that tax charge say they have to subpoena the records of the president? >> there's no other way to cooperate this without the tax returns, so you bet. >> here is elijah cummings, the democrat from the state of maryland and he will gavel into the hearing with brief remarks and we will hear from the ranking member as well with congressman jim jordan and the michael cohen testimony will get underway. e michael cohen te y will get underway. as the press, the large number of photographers take their seats there in what is an incredible spectacle on capitol hill. the timing of this, it has been postponed multiple times. the fact that this occurs the day that the president is meeting with the north korean

dictator, is that a coincidence? >> this is not. this is part of an overall effort by michael cohen and his team to undermine the president, to hurt the president, all part of a plan. >> come to order. >> let's listen now. >> without objection the chair is authorized to declare a recess of the committee at any time. the full committee hearing is convening to hear the testimony of michael cohen former attorney to president donald trump. >> mr. chairman, i have a point of order. >> you'll state your point of order. >> rule f, real rule 9f of the committee rules say that any testimony from your witness needs to be here 24 hours in advance. the committee, the chairman knows well that at 10:08 we received the written testimony and then we received evidence this morning at 7:54. now, this was just an oversight, mr. chairman, i could look beyond it.

but it was an intentional effort by this witness and his advisers to once again show his disdain with that. i move that we postpone this hearing. >> a second. >> i want to thank the gentleman. let me say in that we got the testimony late last night. we did. and we got it to you all pretty much the same time that we got it. i want to move forward with this hearing. >> mr. chairman, with all due respect, mr. chairman, this is a violation of the rule and if it was not intentional, i would not have a problem. i'm not saying it was intentional on your part. i'm saying it's intentional on his part because mr. dean last night on a cable news network

actually made it all very of dent. john dean and i'll quote, mr. chairman. he said, as a former committee counsel in the house judiciary committee and then a long-term witness, sitting alone at the table is important. quote, holding your statement as long as you can so the other side can't chew it up is important as well. closed quote. and so it was advised that our witness got for this particular body and, mr. chairman, when you were in the minority you wouldn't have stood for it and i can tell you that we should not stand for it as a body. >> let me say this -- let me say this. >> mr. chairman -- >> yes. >> i move to table. >> mr. chairman. >> is there a second? >> mr. chairman, mr. chairman, i was asked to be recognized before the motion. >> the vote is so in tabling the motion -- >> you know who had this

material before all the members of the committee? >> excuse me. >> cnn had it before we did. cnn had the exhibit before we did. i just want to be recognized. >> yeah, well, the vote is tabling on the motion to postpone. all in favor a aye. the ayes have it. >> i appeal the ruling of the chair. yes, i can assure you it's in the rules. i appeal the ruling of the chair. >> do the rules matter, mr. chairman? >> i recognize the gentle lady. >> move to waive the rules. >> there is a motion -- >> move to table. >> the vote is -- the vote -- >> she made two motions. what's the motion? >> the vote is on tabling -- >> so what we're seeing here is congressman mark meadow, republican from north carolina, he's actually the freedom caucus chair close ally of president trump, even mentioned as the president's potential chief of staff. he here is saying that they didn't have the material in

advance. that it was on cnn and so they are using a proceed surely motion essentially to try to shut down the hearing. the democrats control this committee. so i think after a little back and forth we'll see this move on but as you can see some of the republicans objecting to the fact that michael cohen's testimony was given to reporters, most likely by mr. cohen's attorney rather than to members of the committee. so that's the voting that's going on right here. this is kind of the spectacle that begins as each person -- but you can see the fireworks have already started on capitol hill. and the voting is there going through. pa paula, we were talking about the taxes. what will michael cohen allege today when it comes to tax fraud? >> he will allege that at times the president would -- he would argue that his net worth was less than it actually was in an effort not to have to pay his full share of taxes. but other instances for example when he wanted to be on the

"forbes" list where he would inflate it. certainly not a crime but he will present those documents to support these allegations and that gives house democrats a way to get at the president's tax returns. the president has always said his personal finances is a red line. it should be off-limits to investigators this could be something specifically that gets a real reaction out of the president if anyone on the panel suggests that now they'll go try to obtain those records. >> we just heard them mention congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez who the congresswoman from queens and as well as congressman rashida tlaib, two freshmen women in congress. we are going to see a lot of diversity of voices in terms of and the new stars in congress will have an opportunity to question michael cohen. what do the democrats on this committee, what is their priority today? >> they want to get as much dirt from cohen as they can. they want to get a road map ha they can follow and said they want to use their subpoena power

now to investigate the president's personal finance. his charity, anything he's done while in office as they also continue to pursue allegations of russian meddling or conspiracy in the 2016. cohen can help point where to look. he's come with all these exhibits and documents he will introduce and that will allow house democrats to continue to sort of follow those leads. republicans, they are going to try to undercut his credible. they're going to remind people he's headed to scale and someone who lied repeatedly. >> there's been a little back and forth today and a disagreement, michael cohen has been sentenced to three years in prison. the president suggests in a tweet today that michael cohen is doing this in order to reduce his sentence. will anything he say today affect the amount of time he will spend in jail? >> it's possible. that's the hope of his defense attorneys. they've consistently told me they hope he is now a helpful

witness, his sentence will be reduced. i don't that will happen. just because he wipes the slate clean doesn't mean he'll have it reduced. >> let's listen now. >> we did not say that. we said we wanted to follow the rules. we didn't say stop the hearing. postpone it so we can get the testimony and exhibits when we were supposed to get it according to the rules of the committee. we didn't say we didn't want to hear from the -- >> reclaiming my time. i now recognize myself for five minutes to give an opening statement. today, the committee will hear the testimony of michael cohen. president donald trump's longtime personal attorney and one of his closest and most trusted advisers over the last decade. on august 21st mr. cohen appeared in federal court and admitted to arranging secret

payoffs of hundreds of thousands of dollars on the eve of the election to silence women alleging affairs with donald trump. mr. cohen admitted to violating campaign finance laws and other laws. he admitted to committing these felonies, quote, in coordination with and at the direction of, n unquote, president trump and he admitted, he admitted to lying about his actions to protect the president. some will certainly ask if mr. cohen was lying then, why should we believe him now? >> good question. >> this is a legitimate question. as a trial lawyer for many

years, i have faced this situation over and over again and i asked the same question. here is how i view our role. every one of us in this room has a duty to serve as an independent check on the executive branch. ladies and gentlemen, we are in search of the truth. the president has made many statements of his own and now the american people have a right to hear the other side. they can watch mr. cohen's testimony and make their own judgment. we received a copy of mr. cohen's written statement late last night. it includes not only personal eyewitness accounts of meetings with donald trump as president inside the oval office, but it also includes documents and

other corroborating evidence for some of mr. cohen's statements. for example, mr. cohen has provided a copy of a check sent while president trump was in office with donald trump's signature on it to reimburse mr. cohen for the hush money payment to stormy daniels. this is -- this new evidence raises a host of troubling legal and ethical concerns about the president's actions in the white house and before. would you all close that door, please? thank you. this check is dated august 1st, 2017.

six months later in april of 2018, the president denied anything about it. in april of 2018, president trump was flying on air force one when a reporter asked him the question, did you know about $130,000 payment to stormy daniels? the answer was, quote, no. a month after that the president admitted to making payments to mr. cohen but claimed they were part of a, quote, monthly retainer, end quote, for legal services. this claim fell apart in august when federal prosecutors concluded and i quote, in truth and in fact, there was no such retainer agreement, end of quote.

today, we also hear mr. cohen's account of a meeting in 2016 in donald trump's office during which roger stone said over speakerphone that he had just spoken with julian assange who said there would be a, quote, massive dump of emails that would damage hillary clinton's campaign, end of quote. according to cohen, mr. trump replied, quote, wouldn't that be great, end of quote. the testimony that michael cohen will provide today, ladies and gentlemen, is deeply disturbing and it should be troubling to all americans. we all have to make our own evaluation of the evidence and mr. cohen's credibility. as he admits, he has repeatedly

lied in the past. i agree with ranking member jordan that this is an important factor we need to weigh. but we must weigh it and we must hear from him. but where i disagree fundamentally with the ranking member involves his efforts to prevent the american people from hearing from mr. cohen. mr. cohen's testimony raises grave questions about the legality of donald trump's -- president donald trump's conduct and the truthfulness of statements while he was president. we need to assess and investigate this new evidence as we hold our constitutional oversight responsibilities and we will continue after today to together more documents and testimony in our search for the truth.

i made it abundantly clear to mr. cohen that if he comes here today and he does not tell us the truth, i will be the first one to refer that -- those untruthful statements to doj. so when people say he doesn't have anything to lose, he does have a lot to lose if he lies. and the american people by the way, for accountability in november and they have a right to hear mr. cohen in public so they can make their own judgments. mr. cohen's testimony is the beginning of the process, not the end. ladies and gentlemen, the days of this committee protecting the president at all costs are over.

they're over. before i close i want to comment about the scope of today's hearing. at the request of the house intelligence committee and my very good friend adam schiff, to limit the scope of today's hearing to exclude questions about russia. however, mr. cohen's written testimony in his written testimony he's made statements relating to russia and these are topics that we understand do not raise concern from the department of justice. so in fairness to the ranking member and all committee members, we will not restrict questions relating to the witness' testimony or related questions he is willing to answer. finally, i remind members that we will need to remain mindful

of those areas where there are ongoing department of justice investigations. those scoping limitations have not changed. finally, and to mr. cohen, martin luther king, mr. cohen, said some words that i leave with you today before you testify. he said faith is taking the first step, even when you can't see the whole staircase. there comes a time when silence becomes betrayal. our lives begin to end. the day we become silent about things that truly matter. in the en, he says, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.

and with that i yield to the distinguished gentleman, the ranking member of our committee, mr. jordan. >> mr. chairman, point of parliamentary inquiry. >> yes. >> to the point -- >> mr. jordan is recognized. mr. jordan is recognized for his opening statement. >> mr. chairman, here we go. here we go. your first big hearing, your first announced witness, michael cohen, i want everyone in the room to think about this, the first announced witness for the 116th congress is a guy who is going to prison in two months for lying to congress. mr. chairman, your chairmanship will always be identified with this hearing and we all need to understand what this is. this is the michael cohen hearing presented by lanny davis, that's right, lanny davis choreographed the whole darn thing. the clintons' best friend, loilgist, operative, lanny davis put this altogether. you know how we know?

he told our staff. he told the committee staff. he said the hearing was his idea. he selected this committee. he had to talk michael cohen into coming. and most importantly he had to persuade the chairman to actually have it. he told us took two months to get that job done but here we are, he talked him into it. this might be the first time someone convicted of lying to congress has appeared again so quickly in front of congress. certainly it's the first time a convicted perjurer has been brought back to be a star witness in a hearing and there's a reason this is a first, because no other committee would do it. think about this. with mr. cohen here, this committee, we got lots of lawyers on this committee. this committee is actually encouraging a witness to violate attorney/client privilege. mr. chairman, when we legitimize dishonesty we delegitimize this institution. we're supposed to pursue the truth. but you have stacked the deck

against the truth. we're evenly allowed to ask certain questions even with that amendment you just told us about. you initially told us we can't ask about the special counsel or can't ask questions about the southern district of new york and can't ask questions about russia, nope, nope, only subjects we can talk about are ones you think are going to be harmful to the president of the united states and the answers to those questions are going to come from a guy who can't be trusted. here's what the u.s. attorney said about mr. cohen. while mr. cohen enjoyed a privileged life, his desire for ever greater wealth and influence precipitated an extensive course of criminal conduct. mr. cohen committed four, four distinct federal crimes over a period of several years. he was motivated to do so by personal greed and repeatedly repeatedly used his power and influence for deceptive ends but the democrats don't care. they don't care.

they just want to use you, mr. cohen. you're their patsy today. they got to find somebody, somewhere to say something so they can try to remove the president from office. because tom stier told them to and organized the town hall, guess where, chairman nadler's district. he organized a town hall. guess where? chairman cummings' district in baltimore. the best they can find, the best they can find to start this process, michael cohen, fraudster, cheat, convicted felon and in two mons a federal inmate. will, actually they didn't find him. lanny davis found him. i'll say one thing about the democrats, they stick to the playbook. remember, remember how all this started. clinton campaign hired perkins law firm who hired glenn simpson

who higher thanned a foreigner christopher thiel who put together the fake dossier that the fbi used to get a warrant to spy on the trump campaign. but when that whole scheme failed and the american people said we're going to make donald trump president, they said we got to do something else. so now clinton loyalist, clinton operative lanny davis has persuaded the chairman of the oversight committee to give a convicted felon a forum to tell stories and lie about the president of the united states so they can all start their impeachment process. mr. chairman, we are better than this. we are better than this. i yield back. mr. chairman, actually i have -- i have a motion. i have a motion under rule 27 k6 -- >> you yielded back, sir.

you yielded back. >> mr. chairman, you took seven minutes. i took four. >> well, the gentleman yielded back if that's how you're going to operate. first you don't follow the rules and now you're going to say -- so you don't get -- deviate from the rules. >> order. >> i just have a simple motion, mr. chairman. >> thank you. -- >> have the testimony 24 hours in advance. >> excuse me. i wanted to know -- >> address that. >> under rule 11, parts 4, all media and photographers must be officially credentialled to record these wrotings and take photographs. i also wanted to briefly address the spectators in the hearing room today. we welcome you and we respect your right to be here. we also ask in turn for your respect as we proceed with the business of the committee today. it is the intention of the committee to proceed without any

disruptions, any disruptions of this committee will result in the united states capitol police restoring order and protesters will be removed and we are grateful for your presence here today and your cooperation. now i want to welcome mr. cohen and thank him for participating in today's hearing. mr. cohen, if you would please rise and i will swear you in. raise your right hand. do you swear or affirm that the testimony that you are about to give is the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god. >> i do. >> let the record show that the witness answered in the affirmative and thank you and you may be seated. the microphones are sensitive so please speak directly into them without objection, your written statement will be made a part of the record and with that, mr. cohen, you are now

recognized to give an oral presentation of your testimony. is your mike on? >> yes. chairman cummings, ranking member jordan and members of the committee, thank you for inviting me here today. i have asked this committee to ensure that my family be protected from presidential threats and that the committee be sensitive to the questions pertaining to ongoing investigations. i thank you for your help and for your understanding. i am here under oath to correct the record, to answer the committee's questions truthfully and to offer the american people what i know about president trump. i recognize that some of you may doubt and attack me on my credibility. it is for this reason that i

have incorporated into this opening statement documents that are irrefutable and demonstrate that the information you will hear is accurate and truthful. never in a million years did i imagine when i accepted a job in 2007 to work for donald trump that he would one day run for the presidency. to launch a campaign on a platform of hate and intolerance and actively win. i regret the day i said yes to mr. trump. i regret all the help and support i gave him along the way. i am ashamed of my own failings and publicly accepted responsibility for them by pleading guilty in the southern district of new york. i am ashamed of my weakness and my misplaced loyalty of the things i did for mr. trump in an

effort to protect and promote him. i am ashamed that i chose to take part in concealing mr. trump's illicit acts rather than listening to my own conscience. i'm ashamed because i know what mr. trump is. he is a racist. he is a con man. and he is a cheat. he was a presidential candidate who knew that roger stone was talking with julian assange about a wikileaks drop on the democratic national committee emails. and i will explain each in a few moments. i am providing the committee today with several documents and these include a copy of a check mr. trump wrote from his personal bank account after he became president to reimburse me

for the hush money payments i made to cover up his affair with an adult film star and to prevent damage to his campaign. copies of financial statements from 2011, 2012 and 2013 that he gave to such institutions such as deutsche bank, a copy of an article with mr. trump's handwriting on it that reported on the auction of a portrait of himself that he arranged for the bidder ahead of time and then reimbursed the bidder from the account of his nonprofit charitable foundation with a the picture hanging in one of his country clubs and copies of letters i wrote at mr. trump's direction that threatened his high school, colleges and the college board not to release his grades or s.a.t. scores.

i hope my appearance here today my guilty plea and my work with law enforcement agencies are steps along a path of redemption that will restore faith in me and help this country understand our president better. and before going further, i want to apologize for each member to you as congress as a whole. the last time i appeared before congress i came to protect mr. trump. today i am here to tell the truth about mr. trump. i lied to congress when mr. trump stopped negotiating the moscow tower project in russia. i stated that we stopped negotiating in january of 2016. that was false. our negotiations continued for months later during the

campaign. mr. trump did not directly tell me to lie to congress. that's not how he operates. 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 russian business and then go on to lie to the american people by saying the same thing. in his way he was telling me to lie. there were at least a half a dozen times between the iowa caucus in january of 2016 and the end of june when he would ask me, how is it going in russia? referring to the moscow tower project. you need to know that mr. trump's personal lawyers reviewed and edited my statement to congress about the timing of the moscow tower negotiations before i gave it.

so to be clear, mr. trump knew of and directed the trump moscow negotiations throughout the campaign and lied about it. he lied about it because he never expected to win. he also lied about it because he stood to make hundreds of millions of dollars on the moscow real estate project. and so i lied about it too because mr. trump had made clear to me through his personal statements to me that we both knew to be false and through his lies to the country that he wanted me to lie and he made it clear to me because his personal attorneys reviewed my statement before i gave it to congress. over the past two years, i have been smeared as a rat by the president of the united states. the truth is much different.

and let me take a brief moment to introduce myself, my name is michael dean cohen. and i am i blessed husband of 24 years and a father to an incredible daughter and son. when i married my wife, i promised her that i would love her, i would cheer other her and i would protect her. as my father said countless times throughout my childhood, you my wife and you my children are the air that i breathe. so to my laura and to my sammy and to my jake, there's nothing i wouldn't do to protect you. i have always tried to live a life of loyalty, friendship, generosity and compassion. it's qualities my parents ingrained in my siblings and me since childhood. my father survived the holocaust. thanks to the compassion and

selfless acts of others. he was helped by many who put themselves in harm's way to do what they knew was right. and that is why my first instinct has always been to help those in need and mom and dad, i am sorry i let you down. as the many people that know me best would say, i am the person that they call at 3:00 a.m. if they needed help and i proudly remember being the emergency contact for many of my children's friends when they were growing up because their parents knew that i would drop everything and care for them as if they were my own. yet, last fall i pled guilty in federal court to felonies for the benefit of at the direction of and in coordination with individual number one and for

the record individual number one is president donald j. trump. it is painful to admit that i was motivated by ambition at times. it is even more painful to admit that many times i ignored my conscience and acted loyal to a man when i should not have. sitting here today it seems unbelievable that i was so mesmerized by donald trump that i was willing to do things for him that i knew were absolutely wrong. for that reason i have come here to apologize to my family, to my government and to the american people. accordingly, let me now tell you about mr. trump. i got to know him very well. working very closely with him for more than ten years as his

executive vice president and special counsel. and then as personal attorney when he became president. when i first met mr. trump, he was a successful entrepreneur, a real estate giant and an icon. being around mr. trump was intoxicating when you were in his presence, you felt like you were involved in something greater than yourself. that you were somehow changing the world. i wound up touting the trump narrative for over a decade, that was my job. always stay on message. always defend. it monopolized my life. at first i worked mostly on real estate developments and other business transactions. shortly thereafter mr. trump brought me into his personal life and private dealings. over time i saw his true

character revealed. mr. trump is an enigma. he is complicated as am i. he is both good and bad as do we all. but the bad far outweighs the good and since taking office, he has become the worst version of himself. he is capable of behaving kindly, but he is not kind. he is capable of committing acts of generosity but he is not generous. he is capable of being loyal, but he is fundamentally disloyal. donald trump is a man who ran for office to make his brand great, not to make our country great. he had no desire or intention to lead this nation. only to market himself and to build his wealth and power. mr. trump would often say, this campaign was going to be the

greatest infomercial in political history. he never expected to win the primary. he never expected to win the general election. the campaign for him was always a marketing opportunity. i knew early on in my work for mr. trump that he would direct me to lie, to further his business interests. and i am ashamed to say that when it was for a real estate mogul in the private sector, i considered it trivial as the president, i consider it significant and dangerous. but in the mix lying for mr. trump was normalized and no one around him questioned it. in fairness, no one around him today questions it either. a lot of people have asked me about whether mr. trump knew about the release of the hacked documents, the democratic

national committee emails ahead of time and the answer is yes. as i earlier stated mr. trump knew from roger stone in advance about the wikileaks drop of emails. in july of 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. 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, wouldn't that be great. mr. trump is a racist. the country has seen mr. trump

court white supremacists and bigots. you have heard him pusher countries shit holes. in private he is even worse. he once asked me if i can name a country run by a black person that wasn't a shit hole. this was when barack obama was president of the united states. and while we were striving through a struggling neighborhood in chicago, he commented that only black people could live that way. and he told me that black people would never vote for him because they were too stupid. and yet i continued to work for him. mr. trump is a cheat. as previously stated, i'm giving to the committee today three years of mr. trump's personal financial statements from 2011,

2012 and 2013. which he gave to deutsche bank to inquire about a loan to buy the buffalo bills and to forbes. these are exhibits 1a, 1b and 1c to my testimony. it was my experience that mr. trump inflated his total assets when it served his purposes. such as trying to be listed amongst the wealthiest people in forbes and deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes. i'm sharing with you two newspaper articles side by side that are examples of mr. trump inflating and deflating his assets as i said to suit his financial interests. these are exhibit 2 to my testimony. as i noted i am giving the committee today an article he wrote on and sent to me that reported on an auction of a

portrait of mr. trump. this is exhibit 3a to my testimony. mr. trump directed me to find a straw bidder to purchase a portrait of him that was being auctioned off at an art hamptons event. the objective was to ensure that this portrait which was going to be auctioned last would go for the highest price of any portrait that afternoon. the portrait was purchased by the fake bidder for $60,000. mr. trump directed the trump foundation which is supposed to be a charitable organization to repay the fake bidder despite keeping the art for himself. and please see exhibit 3b to my testimony. and it should come as no surprise that one of my more common responsibilities was that mr. trump directed me to call business owners, many of whom

are small businesses that were owed upon for their services and told them that no payment or a reduced payment would be coming. when i asked mr. trump or when i told mr. trump of my success, he actually reveled in it and yet i continued to work for him. mr. trump is a con man. he asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair and to lie about it to his wife which i did and lying to the first lady is one of my biggest regrets because she is a kind, good person and i respect her greatly and she did not deserve that. and i'm giving the committee today a copy of the $130,000 wire transfer from me to miss clifford's attorney during the closing days of the presidential

campaign that was demanded by miss clifford to maintain her silence about her affair with mr. trump and this is exhibit 4 to my testimony. mr. trump directed me to use my own personal funds from a home equity line of credit to avoid any money being traced back to him that could negatively impact his campaign and i did that too without bothering to consider whether that was improper, much less whether it was the right thing to do or how would it impact me, my family or the public. and i'm going to jail in part because of my decision to help mr. trump hide that payment from the american people before they voted a few days later. as exhibit 5a to my testimony

shows, i am providing the copy of a $35,000 check that president trump personally signed from his personal bank account on august 1st of 2017. when he was president of the united states pursuant to the cover-up which was the basis of my guilty plea to reimburse me the word used by mr. trump's tv lawyer for the illegal hush money i paid on his behalf, this $35,000 check was one of 11 check installments that was paid throughout the year while he was president. other checks to reimburse me for the hush money payments were signed by donald trump jr. and allen weisselberg and for that example see 5b. the president of the united

states thus wrote a personal check for the payment of hush money as part of a criminal scheme to violate campaign finance laws and you can find the details of that scheme directed by mr. trump in the pleadings in the u.s. district court for the southern district of new york. so picture this scene. in february of 2017 one month into his presidency i'm visiting president trump in the oval office for the first time and it's truly awe inspiring. he is showing me all around and pointing to different paintings and he says to me something to the effect of, don't worry, michael, your january and february reimbursement checks are coming. they were fedexed from new york and it takes a while for that to get through the white house system as he promised. i received the first check for

the reimbursement of $70,000 not long thereafter. when i say con man, i'm talking about a man who declares himself brilliant but directed me to threaten his high school, his colleges and the college board to never release his grades or s.a.t. scores. as i mentioned, i'm giving the committee today copies of a letter i sent at mr. trump's direction threatening these schools with civil and criminal actions if mr. trump's grades or s.a.t. scores were ever disclosed without his permission. and these are under exhibit c -- 6. the irony wasn't lost on me at the time that mr. trump in 2011 had strongly criticized president obama for not releasing his grades. as you can see in exhibit 7,

mr. trump declared let him show his records after calling president obama a terrible student. the sad fact is that i never heard mr. trump say anything in private that led me to believe he loved our nation or wanted to make it better. in fact, he did the opposite. when telling me in 2008 or 2009 he was cutting employees' salaries in half including mine, he showed me what he claims a $10 million irs tax refund and he said that he could not believe how stupid the government was for giving someone like him that much money back. during the campaign mr. trump said that he did not consider vietnam veteran and prisoner of war senator john mccain to be a

hero because he likes people who weren't captured. at the same time mr. trump tasked me to handle the negative press surrounding his medical deferment from the vietnam draft. mr. trump claimed it was because of a bone spur, but when i asked for medical records, he gave me none and said that there was no surgery. he told me not to answer the specific questions by reporters but rather offer simply the fact that he received a medical deferment. he finished the conversation with the following comment, do you think i'm stupid? i'm not going to vietnam. and i find it ironic, mr. president, that you are in vietnam right now. and yet i continue d to work fo him. questions have been raised about whether i know of direct evidence that mr. trump or his

campaign colluded with russia. i do not. and i want to be clear but i have my suspicions, sometime in the summer of 2017 i read all over the media that there had been a meeting in trump tower in june of 2016 involving don junior and others from the campaign with russians. including a representative of the russian government and an email setting up the meeting with the subject line, dirt on hillary clinton. something clicked in my mind, i remembered being in a room with mr. trump probably in early june of 2016 when something peculiar happened. don jutrump jr. came into the rm and walked behind his father's desk which in and of itself was unusual. people didn't walk behind his desk to talk to him and i

recalled don junior leaning over to his father and speaking in a low voice which i could clearly hear and saying, the meeting is all set and i remember mr. trump saying, okay, good, let me know. what struck me as i looked back and thought about the exchange between don junior and his father was first that mr. trump had frequently told me and others that his son don junior had the worst judgment of anyone in the world and also that don junior would never set up any meeting of significance alone and certainly not without checking with his father. i also knew that nothing went on in trump world especially the campaign without mr. trump's knowledge and approval. so i concluded that don junior was referring to that june 2016

trump tower meeting about dirt on hillary with the russian representatives when he walked behind his dad's desk that day and that mr. trump knew that was the meeting don junior was talking about when he said that's good, let me know. over the past year or so, i have done some real soul searching and i see now that my ambition and the intoxication of trump power had much to do with the bad decisions in part that i made. and to you, chairman cummings and ranking member jordan and the other members of this committee and the members of the house and senate, i am sorry for my lies and for lying to congress. and to our nation, i am sorry for actively working to hide from you the truth about mr. trump when you needed it most.

for those who question my motives for being here today, i understand. i have lied. but i am not a liar. and i have done bad things but i am not a bad man. i have fixed things but i am no longer your fixer, mr. trump. and i am going to prison and have shattered the safety and security that i tried so hard to poi for my family. my testimony certainly does not diminish the pain that i have caused my family and my friends. nothing can do that. and i have never asked for nor would i accept a pardon from president trump. and by coming today i have caused my family to be the target of personal, scurrilous attacks by the president and his lawyer, trying to intimidate me from appearing before this

panel. mr. trump called me a rat for choosing to tell the truth, much like a mobster would do when one of his men decides to cooperate with the government. and as exhibit 8 shows, i have provided the committee with copies of tweets that mr. trump posted attacking me and my family and only someone burrying his head in the sand would not recognize them for what they are, encouragement to someone to do harm to me and my family. i never imagined that he would engage in vicious false attacks on my family and unleash his tv lawyer to do the same. and i hope this committee and all members of congress on both sides of the aisle make it clear that as a nation, we should not tolerate attempts to intimidate

witnesses before congress and attacks on family are out of bounds and not acceptable. and i wish to especially thank speaker pelosi for her statements as exhibit 9 to protect this institution and me and the chairman of the house permanent select committee on intelligence adam schiff and you, chairman, cummings for likewise defending the institution and my family against the attacks by mr. trump and also the many republicans who have admonished the president as well. i am not a perfect man. i have done things i am not proud of and i will live with the consequences of my actions for the rest of my life. but today i get to decide the example that i set for my children and how i attempt to change how history will remember

me. i may not be able to change the past but i can do right by the american people here today and i thank you for your attention and i'm happy to answer the committee's questions. >> thank you so much, mr. cohen. i now recognize myself. mr. cohen, before i start, i want to make sure you really understand something. you have admitted lying to congress to this very body and now you're going to prison for it. do you, mr. cohen, recognize the gravity of your offenses? you are a lawyer, right? >> as of yesterday, i am no longer a lawyer. i have lost my law license amongst other things. >> but you understand the gravity of this moment. >> i most certainly do, mr. chairman. >> i want you to really hear this, mr. cohen. we will not tolerate lying to

this congress by anybody. we're in search of the truth. do you understand that. >> i do. >> the president has also made numerous statements, it turned out to be inaccurate. for example, he said he knew nothing about the hush money payments to miss clifford and his 2017 financial disclosure form said he never owed money to reimburse you for those payments. yet, in your testimony, mr. cohen, you said that you met with the president in the oval office in february of 2017 and discussed his plans to reimburse you for money you paid. you say he told you and i quote, don't worry, michael, your january and february reimbursement checks are coming. is that accurate and was that in

the oval office? >> the statement is accurate. but the discussions regarding the reimbursement occurred long before he became president. >> would you explain that? >> back in 2017 when -- i apologize, 2016 prior to the election, i was contacted by keith davidson who is the attorney or was the attorney for miss clifford, for stormy daniels and after several rounds of conversations with him about purchasing her life rights for $130,000, what i did each and every time is going straight into mr. trump's office and discuss the issue with him. when it was ultimately

determined and this was days before the election that mr. trump was going to pay the $130,000, in the office with me was allen weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the trump organization. he acknowledged to allen that he was going to pay the 130,000 and that allen and i should go back to his office and figure out how to do it. so, yes, sir, i stand by the statement that i gave but there was a history to it. >> in your testimony you said you bought some techs, is that right? let me ask you one of these. this from the trump trust that holes the president businesses. can you tell me who

>> i believe that the top signature is donald trump jr. and at the bottom, the signature, i believe is allen weisselberg's. >> can you tell me the date of that check? >> march 17th of 2017. >> now wait a minute. hold up. the date on the check is after president trump held his big press conference claiming that he gave up control of his businesses. how could the president have arranged for you to get this check if he was supposedly playing no role in his business? >> because the payments were designed to be paid over the course of 12 months, and it was declared to be a retainer for services that would be provided for the year of 2017. >> was there a retainer

agreement? >> there was no retainer agreement. >> would don junior or mr. weisselberg have more information about that? >> mr. weisselberg, for sure, about the entire discussions and negotiations prior to the election. and don junior would have cursory information. >> now here's another one. this one appears to be signed by donald trump himself. is that his signature? >> that is donald trump's signature. >> so let me make sure i understand. donald trump wrote you a check out of his personal account while he was serving as president of the united states of america to reimburse you for hush money payments to miss clifford. is that what you are telling the american people today? >> yes, mr. chairman. >> one final question. the president claimed he knew

nothing about these payments. his ethics filing said he owed nothing to you. based on your conversations with him, is there any doubt in your mind that president trump knew exactly what he was paying for? >> there is no doubt in my mind, and i truly believe there's no doubt in the mind of the people of the united states of america. >> and these new documents appear to corroborate what you just told us. with that, i'll yield to the gentleman from -- the ranking member. >> i will make sure that you and i meet one day while we're in the courthouse, and i will take you for every penny you still don't have, and i will come after your daily beast and everybody else that you possibly know. so i'm warning you, tread very f'ing lightly because what i'm going to do to you is going to be f'ing disgusting. you understand me? mr. cohen, who said that?

>> i did. >> and did you say that, mr. cohen, in your testimony on page two, you said you did things for mr. trump in an effort to protect him. was that statement that i just read that you admitted to saying, did you do that to protect donald trump? >> i did it to protect mr. trump, donald trump jr., ivanka trump and eric trump. >> and in your sentencing statement back in december in front of the judge, you said this, mr. cohen. my weakness can be characterized as a blind loyalty to donald trump, a blind loyalty that led me to choose a path of darkness. is that accurate, mr. cohen? >> i wrote that. >> you wrote that and said that in front of the judge. is that right? >> that's correct. >> let me read a few other things here and let me ask you why you did some of these things. when you filed a false tax return in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016, was all that out of

blind loyalty to the president? >> no it was not. >> when you failed to report $4 million in income to the internal revenue service, did you do that to protect donald trump? >> no, i did not. >> and when you failed to pay $1.4 million in taxes, i got constituents who don't make that in a lifetime. when you failed to pay $1.4 million in taxes to the u.s. treasury, was that out of some blind loyalty to the president of the united states? >> it was not, but the number was 1.38 and change, and i have paid that money back to the irs. >> i think the american people appreciate that 1.38 and 1.4. >> and it was over a course of five years. approximately $260,000 a year. >> and that's what i said. 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015. when you made false statements to financial institutions concerning a home equity line of

credit, taxi medallions and your apartment in 2013, 2014 and 2015 you pled guilty to making those false statements to those banks. was that all done to protect the president? >> no, it was not. >> how about this one. when you created the fake twitter account women for cohen and paid a firm to post tweets like, this one, in a world of lies, deception and fraud, we appreciate this honest guy at michael cohen #tgif, #handsome, #sexy. was that done to protect the president? >> i didn't actually set that up. it was done by a young lady that worked for red finch. and during the course of the campaign, which you would know, it's somewhat crazy and wild. we were having fun. that's what it was, sir. we were having fun. >> was it done to protect the president? >> that was not done to protect the president. >> was it a fake twitter

account? >> no, it was a real twitter account. it exists. >> did you pay a firm to create this? >> i didn't pay the firm to do that. it was done by a young lady that works for the firm. and again, sir, we were having fun during a stressful time. >> the point is, mr. cohen, did you lie to protect the president or lie to help yourself? >> i'm not sure how that helped me, sir. >> i'm not sure how it did either. >> right. and i would like to note that more than half the people on that site are men. >> here's the point. the chairman gave you a 30-minute opening statement, and you have a history of lying over and over and over again and frankly, don't take my word for it. take what the court said. take what the southern district of new york said. cohen did crimes tha e marked by a pattern of deception and that permeated his professional life. these crimes were distinct in their harms but bear a common set of circumstances. they each involve deception and were each -- each motivated by

personal greed and ambition. a pattern of deception for personal greed and ambition. and you just got 30 minutes of an opening statement where you trashed the president of the united states of america. mr. cohen, how long did -- how long did you work for donald trump? >> approximately a decade. >> ten years? >> that's correct. >> and you said all these bad things about the president in the last 30 minutes, and yet you worked for him for ten years? all those bad things, i think, if it's that bad, i can see you working for him for ten days. maybe ten weeks. maybe even ten months. but you worked for him for ten years. mr. cohen, how long did you -- how long did you work in the white house? >> i never worked in the white house. >> that's the point isn't it? >> no, sir. >> yes it is. you wanted to work in the white house. >> no, sir. >> you didn't get brought to the dance. >> i was extremely proud to be personal attorney to the

president of the united states of america. i did not want to go to the white house. i was offered jobs. i can tell you a story of mr. trump reaming out reince priebus because i had not taken a job where mr. trump wanted me to which is working with don mcgahn. >> you worked with the president -- >> sir, one second. what i said at the time, and i brought a lawyer in who produced a memo as to why i should not go in because there would be no attorney/client privilege and in order to handle some of the matters that i talked about in my opening that it would be best suited for me not to go in, and that every president had a personal attorney. >> here's what i see. i see a guy who worked for ten years and is here trashing the guy he worked for, for ten years. didn't get a job in the white house, and now -- and now you're behaving just like everyone else who got fired or who didn't get the job they wanted.

like andy mccabe, james comey. same selfish motivation after you don't get the thing you want. that's what i see today and that's what the american people -- >> all i wanted was what i got. to be personal attorney to the president. to enjoy the senior year of my son in high school and waiting for my daughter who is graduating from college to come back to new york. i got exactly what i want. >> exactly what you want? you're going to prison. >> i received exactly what i wanted. >> gentleman's time is expired. miss wasserman schultz. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. cohen, thank you for being here today. as you likely know, i served as the chair of the democratic national committee at the time of the russian hacks and when russia weaponized the messages it had stolen. but i want to be clear. my questions are not about the harm done to any individual by wikileaks and the russians. it's about the possible and likely harm to the united states

of america and our democracy. i have a series of questions that i hope will connect more of these dots. mr. cohen is it your testimony that mr. trump had advanced knowledge of the russia wikileaks release of the dnc's e-mails? >> i cannot answer that in a yes or no. he had advance notice that there was going to be a dump of e-mails, but at no time did i hear the specificity of what those e-mails were going to be. >> but you do testify today that he had advanced knowledge of their imminent release? >> that is what i had stated in my testimony. >> and that he cheered that outcome? >> yes, ma'am. >> did mr. trump likely share this information with his daughter ivanka, son don europejunior or jared kushner? >> i'm not aware of that. >> was ivanka, jared or don still involved in the russia tower deal at the time?

>> the company was involved in the deal, which meant that the family was involved in the deal. >> if mr. trump and his daughter ivanka and son don junior are involved in the russian trump tower deal, is it possible the whole family is conflicted or compromised with a foreign adversary in the months before the election? >> yes. >> based on your experience with the president and knowledge of his relationship with mr. stone, do you have reason to believe that the president explicitly or implicitly authorized mr. stone to make contact with wikileaks and to indicate the campaign's interest in the strategic release of these illegally hacked materials? >> i'm not aware of that. >> was mr. stone a free agent reporting back to the president what he had done, or was he an agent of the campaign acting on behalf of the president and with his apparent authority? >> no, he was a free agent. >> a free agent that was reporting back to the president what he had done? >> correct. he frequently reached out to mr.

trump, and mr. trump was very happy to take his calls. it was free service. >> roger stone says he never spoke with mr. trump about wikileaks. how can we corroborate what you are saying? >> i don't know, but i suspect that the special counsel's office and other government agencies have the information that you are seeking. >> moving on to a little later in 2016. a major wikileaks dump happens hours after the "access hollywood" tape is released. do you believe, or are you aware of mr. trump coordinating or signaling for this e-mail dump? >> i am unaware of that. i was not even in the country at the time of the billy bush tape. i was in london visiting my daughter. >> knowing how mr. trump operates with his winning at all costs mentality, do you believe that he would cooperate or collude with a foreign power to

win the presidency. is he capable of that? >> calls on so much speculation, ma'am. it would be unfair for me to -- >> you have a tremendous amount of experience. >> mr. trump is all about winning. he will do what is necessary to win. >> and in your opinion, and experience, would he have the potential to cooperate or collude with a foreign power to win the presidency at all costs? >> yes. >> based on what you know, would mr. trump or did he lie about colluding and coordinating with the russians at any point during the campaign? >> so as i stated in my testimony, i wouldn't use the word colluding. was there something odd about the back and forth praise with

president putin? yes. but i'm not really sure that i can answer that question in terms of collusion. i was not part of the campaign. i don't know the other conversations that mr. trump had with other individuals. there's just so many dots that all seem to lead to the same direction -- >> finally, before my time expires, mr. cohen. the campaign and the entire trump organization appeared to be filthy with russian contact. there are russian business contacts. there are campaign russian contacts. there are lies about all of those contacts. and then we have roger stone informing the president just before the democratic national convention that these -- that wikileaks was going to drop documents in the public arena that we knew at that point were hacked and stolen by russia from

the democratic national committee. >> the gentle lady's time has expird. you may answer her inquiry. >> my question is -- >> quickly. >> given all those connections, is it likely that donald trump was fully aware and had every intent of working with russia to help make sure that he could win the presidency at all costs? >> so let me say that this is a matter that's currently being handled by the house select and the senate select intelligence committees. i would rather not answer that specific question other than just to tell you that mr. trump's desire to win would have him work with anyone. and one other thing that i had said in my statement is that when it came to the trump tower moscow project, it was worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

and we never expected to win the election. so this was just business as usual. >> thank you, mr. cohen. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. ranking member jordan. the chairman in this committee have promised members of the american people a fair and open process. yet the democrats have vastly limited the scope of this hearing. they've issued a gag order to try to tell member thifss committee what we can and cannot talk about. my colleagues on the other side of the aisle claim they want the truth, that they want transparency and fair oversight, yet the democrats witnessed to testify before congress today is none other than a scorned man who is going to prison for lying to congress. let that sink in. he's going to prison for lying to congress, and he's the star witness to congress. if you read the sentencing report on mr. cohen, words like deceptive and greedy, are scattered throughout that report. it paints a picture of a narcissist, a bully, who cannot tell the truth whether it's

about the president or about his own personal life. but today he's the majority party's star witness. if the democrats were after the truth, they'd have an honest person here testifying. if they were really after the truth, they'd not restrict the questioning to just a few topics. but let's take a look at those restricted topics. mr. chairman, the first topic in your limited scope that i can ask mr. cohen is about the president's debts. but mr. chairman, didn't mr. cohen plead guilty to lying to banks about his personal finances? so we're asking a guy going to jail for lying about his debts to comment about the president's debts. he's the expert. mr. chairman, your next couple of topics say that i can ask mr. cohen about the president's compliance with financial disclosures and campaign finance laws, but didn't mr. cohen on two occasions break campaign

finance law with his own donations? so again, the majority party's star witness on the president's compliance is a guy who broke compliance laws himself. mr. chairman, you graciously allow us to ask questions of mr. cohen on the president's dealings with the irs and tax law. your star witness here broke the law with regards to the irs at least five times. he pled guilty on cheating on his taxes, lying to the irs. he's the best witness you got? next up, with the permission of the chairman, i get to ask about his perspective on the president's business dealings. let me get this straight. the witness lied to multiple financial institutions to get loans to pay off other loans just to keep himself afloat, and he's going to be the expert on business practices. obviously, mr. chairman, the witness may produce documents that he suggests incriminates the president, yet he lies to

banks. all of those lies were done on fraudulent documents. documents that he forged. nothing he says or produces has any credibility. apparently he even lied about delivering his own child which his wife had to correct the record. ladies and gentlemen, how on earth is this witness credible? with all the lies and deception, the self-serving fraud, it begs the question, what is the majority party doing here? no one can see this guy as credible. he will say whatever he wants to accomplish his own personal goals. he's a fake witness, and his presence here is a travesty. i hope the american people see through this. i know the people back in tennessee will. and with that statement, sir, i have a few questions of the witness. with your loss of your law license, i think you mentioned in your opening statement that you had been disbarred, what is

your source of income in the future? >> i don't expect i'm going to have a source of income when i'm in federal penitentiary. >> what -- is there a book deal coming or anything like that? >> i have no book deal right now in the process. i have been contacted by many, including for television, movie, if you want to tell me who you'd like to play you, i'm more than happy to write the name down. >> i'm sure there's a very attractive man -- >> i'd like to correctior statement on me. >> let me ask one other question. i only have a limited amount of -- >> no individual -- >> who paid your expenses to be here today? >> who paid my expenses? >> to be here today. >> i paid my expenses. >> mr. chairman, i'd like to yield the remaining amount of my time to the ranking member. >> mr. cohen, how many times did you talk to the special counsel's office? >> seven. >> did they talk to you at all in preparation for today's hearing between the seven times

you talked to them prior to your sentencing? have you had any conversations with the special counsel's office between sentencing and today? >> i'm sorry, sir, i don't understand your question. >> you talked to them seven times in the sentencing memorandums in front of the court in december. what i'm asking is how many times have you talked to the special counsel's office since then, up to today's appearance here in congress. >> the gentleman's time is expired. you may answer the question, though. that one question. >> i don't have the answer to that. >> mr. maloney -- >> well, i'll come back. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. cohen, in your ten years of working for donald trump, did he control everything that went on in the trump organization? and did you have to get his permission in advance and report back after every meeting of any importance? >> yes. >> there was nothing that happened at the trump

organization from whether it was a response as the daily beast story that you referred to, ranking member, that did not go through mr. trump with his approval and sign off as in the case of the payments. >> how many times did the president, michael, ask you or direct you to try to reach settlements with women in 2015 and 2016. >> i'm sorry, man, i don't have the answer to that. i'd have to go back and try to recollect. it's certainly the two that we know about. >> and why do you think the president did not provide the accurate information in his 2017 financial disclosure form? what was he trying to hide? he corrected other forms but he didn't correct this one. >> the payments on the

reimbursement of the funds that i extended on his behalf. >> can you elaborate more? >> well, going back into the story, as i stated, when we -- allen weisselberg and i left the office and we went to his office in order to make the determination on how the money was going to be wired to the iola, the interest on a lawyer's account for keith davidson in california, i had asked allen to use his money. didn't want to use mine. and he said he couldn't. and we then decided how else we can do it. he asked me whether or not -- know anybody who wants to have a party at one of his clubs that could pay me instead or somebody who may have wanted to become a member of one of the golf clubs. and i also don't have anybody that was interested in that. and it got to the point where it was down to the wire.

it was either -- somebody wire the funds and purchase the life rights to the story from miss clifford, or it was going to end up being sold to television and that would have embarrassed the president. and it would have interfered with the election. >> but the president has never amended his 2017 form to this day. and while you're facing the consequences of going to jail, he is not. >> i believe that they amended a financial disclosure form, and there's a footnote somewhere buried. i don't recall specifically what it says, but there is a footnote buried somewhere. >> can you describe, michael, to the american people catch and kill. >> so catch and wikill is a metd that exists when you are working with a news outlet. in this specific case, it was ami, national enquirer, david

pecker, dill an howard and others, where they would contact me or mr. trump or someone and state that there's a story that is percolating out there that you may be interested in. and then what you do is you contact that individual and you purchase the rights to that story from them. >> and you practiced this for the president? >> i was involved in several of these catch and kill episodes. these catch and kill scenarios existed between david pecker and mr. trump long before i started working for him in 2007. >> michael, can you suggest who else this committee should talk to for additional information on this or anything else? >> yes, i believe david pecker, dylan howard, barry levine of ami as well. allen weisselberg, allen garten

with the trump organization as well. >> well, thank you very much for your testimony, and mr. chairman, this is a story of redemption. >> thank you. >> in your testimony you stated you began work for the trump administration as a lawyer dealing with real estate transactions. >> that's correct. >> prior to coming to congress, i served as a director two of different banks. i've seen hundreds of loan applications and to try to determine your credibility here today, i want to ask a few real estate transaction questions to see how, in fact, you operate. according to the southern district of new york prosecutors, you lied to banks to secure loans by falsely stating the amount of debt you were carrying. mr. cohen, my question to you, was it donald trump's fault that you knowingly committed a crime of deception to defraud a bank? >> no, it's not. >> was that fraudulent loan you obtained for the trump organization or for you

personally? >> it would be for me, though i'm not familiar with which loan that you're referring to. i would like to say one thing. i would like just to respond. >> the loan that you -- >> when we're talking about the home equity line of credit, which is what i believe you're referring to. >> we're also referring to -- i'm going to ask you a question pertaining to your summer home -- >> i never purchased a summer home. no individual or no bank in the 22 years that i've had loans have ever lost a dollar with me. i owe no money to any bank. >> the bank s usually find out f someone is trying to -- >> in 22 years, i have no money that's ever been owed to any individual or any bank. >> mr. cohen, did your so-called blind loyalty to the president cause you to defraud the bank through your own personal gain? >> sir, i take exception to that because there's never been a fraud -- i never defrauded any bank.

>> let's dig deep or that. according to the southern district of new york you failed to disclose more than $20 million in liabilities, as well as tens of thousands of dollars of monthly expenses. that's according to the southern district of new york. now mr. cohen, you being a lawyer, surely you knew you were breaking the law. now why would you have done this? >> sir, i'm not a cpa, and i pled guilty. i'm going to prison as a result of it. >> because you're a con? >> no, sir. because i pled guilty and i am going to be doing the time. i have caused tremendous, tremendous pain to my family. and i take no happiness in -- >> the question about the bank. when the bank found out about the liabilities that you failed to disclose, you lied again to the bank -- this is according to the southern district of new york -- and said it had been expunged when you just shifted the debt to another bank. so apparently, according to the

information that we received, your intent to defraud the bank was for the desire to purchase the summer home for $8.5 million? >> no, sir. that would have been off an equity line considering i had less than a 50% loan to value on the assets, and there was a pre-existing line of credit that existed years before the date that you're referring to where this is all surrounding new york city taxi medallions. >> but you understand that when you fail to disclose liabilities, especially $20 million in liabilities, that is, in fact, fraud. >> except even with the $20 million in liability -- >> how much was it? >> the medallions were at that time worth over $45 million. >> mr. cohen, you called donald trump a cheat in your opening testimony. what would you call yourself? >> a fool.

>> you calling -- okay. well, no comment on that. a it. >> we said we ere in search of the truth. i don't believe that michael cohen is capable of telling the truth. and i would hope that as this committee moves forward that when we have the opportunity to subpoena witnesses, we subpoena witnesses that are not recently disbarred, are not convicted felon, and witnesses that haven't committed bank fraud and tax fraud. that is how we're going to determine the truth. so, mr. chairman, i yield the balance of my time to the ranking member. >> i would just make one point. we just had a five-minute debate where mr. cohen disputes what the southern district of new york found, what the judge found that he was guilty of bank fraud. if this statement back here doesn't say it all. cohen's consciousness of wrongdoing is fleeting, his remorse minimal. his instinct to blame others is strong. only one thing wrong with that statement. his remorse is nonexistent.

he just debated a member of congress saying i didn't do anything wroong with the false bank things i did that i am -- >> that's not what i said and you know that's not what i said. i pled guilty and take responsibility for my actions. >> shame on you, mr. jordan. that is not what i said. shame on you. >> mr. chairman -- >> that's not what i said. what i said is i took responsibility. and i take responsibility. what i was doing is explaining to the gentleman that his facts are inaccurate. i still -- i take responsibility for my mistakes, all right? i am remorseful. and i am going to prison. i will be away from my wife and family for years. so before you turn around and you cast more dispersion, please understand, there are people watching you today that know me a whole lot better. i made mistakes.

i own them, and i didn't fight with the southern district of new york. i didn't put the system through an entire scenario, but what i did do is i pled guilty, and i am going to be -- again, going to prison. >> ms. norton. >> mr. cohen, at the center of the reasons you are going to prison is conviction for campaign finance violations. and they center around some salacious revelations. "the washington post" reported, or aired, an "access hollywood" video. it set a record for the number of people who watch ed, crashed the newspaper's server.

but this happened in early october on the cusp of the election. what was mr. trump's reaction to the video becoming public at that time, and was he concerned about the impact of that video on the election? >> the answer is yes. as i stated before, i was in london at the time visiting my daughter who is studying there for a semester abroad. and i received a phone call during the dinner from hope hicks stating that she had just spoken to mr. trump and we need you to start making phone calls to the various different news outlets that you have relationships with. and we need to spin this. and what we want to do is just to claim that this was men locker room talk. >> was the concern about the election in particular?

>> the answer is yes. then, couple that with karen mcdougal which then came out around the same time, and then, on top of that, the stormy daniels matter. >> and these things happened in the month before the election, and almost one after the other. the stormy daniels revelation where prosecutors and officials, prosecutors learned of that -- of that matter. and prosecutors stated that the officials at the magazine contacted you about the story. and the magazine, of course, is the "national enquirer." is that correct that they did? >> yes, ma'am. >> come to you?

were you concerned about this new story becoming a public right after the "access hollywood" story in terms of impact on the election? >> i was concerned about it, but more importantly, mr. trump was concerned. >> that was my next question. what was the president's concern about these matters becoming public in october as we were about to go into an election. >> i don't think anybody would dispute this belief that after the wildfire that encompassed the billy bush tape that a second follow-up to it would have been pleasant. and he was concerned with the effect that it had had on the campaign, on how women were seeing him and ultimately

whether or not he would have a shot in the general election. >> and so you negotiated the $130,000 payment -- >> the $130,000 number was not a number that was actually negotiated. it was told to me by keith davidson that this is the number that ms. clifford wanted. >> you finally completed that deal, as it were, on october the 25th. >> 28th. >> days before the election. what happened in the interim? >> contemplated whether or not to do it. wasn't sure if she was really going to go public. again, some communications back and forth between myself and keith davidson. and ultimately it came to either do it or don't, at which time again i had gone into mr. trump's office as i did after each and every conversation. and he had told me that he had

spoken to a couple of friends and it's $130,000. it's not a lot of money. and we should just do it. so go ahead and do it. i was at the time with allen weisselberg where he directed us to go back to mr. weisselberg's office and figure this all out. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> mr. cohen, do you know -- i'm right here. do you know lynn patton? >> yes, i do. >> i asked lynn to come today in her personal capacity to actually shed some light. how long have you known her? >> i'm responsible for lynn patton joining the trump organization and the job that she currently holds. >> well, i'm glad you acknowledge that because you made some very demeaning comments about the president that ms. patton doesn't agree with. in fact, it has to do with your claim of racism.

she says that as a daughter of a man born in birmingham, alabama, that there is no way that she would work for an individual who was racist. how do you reconcile the two of those? >> as neither should i as the son of a holocaust survivor. >> but, mr. cohen, i guess what i'm saying is, i've talked to the president over 300 times. i've not heard one time a racist comment out of his mouth in private. so how do you reconcile it? do you have proof of those conversations? >> i would ask you to -- >> do you have tape recordings of those conversations? >> no. >> well, you've taped everybody else so -- >> that's also not true, sir. that's not true. >> you haven't taped anybody? >> how many times have you taped individuals? is that a low estimate? i've heard it's over 200. >> i think it's approximately about 100 from what i would recall. you asked me a question, sir, so

here's -- >> do you have proof, yes or no? >> i do. >> where's the proof? >> ask ms. patton how many people who are black are executives at the trump organization? and the answer is zero. >> mr. cohen, we can go through this. i would ask unanimous consent that her entire statement be put in the record. >> without objection. let me go on a little bit further. did you collect $1.2 million or so from novartis? >> i did. >> for access to the trump administration? >> no, sir. >> why did you collect it? >> because they came to me based upon my knowledge of the enigma donald trump, what he thinks -- >> so they -- >> please let me finish. >> no. did they pay you $1.2 million to give them advice? >> yes, they did. they -- a multibillion-dollar conglomerate came to me looking for information, not something that's unusual here in d.c.,

looking for information, and they believed that i had a value. >> so how many times did you meet with them? >> that value was the insight i was capable of offering them that they were willing to pay -- >> how many times did you meet with them? for $1.2 million, how many times did you meet with them? >> i provided them with both in-person as well as telephone access whenever they needed. >> how many times -- that's a question, mr. cohen. >> i don't recall, sir. >> did you ever talk to them? >> i spoke to them on several occasions. >> how many? >> six times. >> six times? wow. $200,000 a call. >> i also would like to -- i also would like to -- >> this is my five minutes, not yours. did you get money from the bank of kazakhstan. >> it's call bta. >> bta bank. kazakhstan bta bank. did you get money from them? >> i did. >> for what purpose? >> the purpose was because the former ceo of that bank had

absconded with over -- between $4 billion to $6 billion, and some of that money was here in the united states, and they sought my assistance in terms of finding, locating that money and helping them to relecollect it. >> are you saying all the reports that you were paid in some estimates over $4 million to have access and understanding of the trump administration, you are saying that all of that was just paid to you just because you are a nice guy? >> i am a nice guy, but more importantly -- >> i would beg to differ. if the record reflects you're not a nice guy. >> each and every contract contained the clause that said i will not lobby, and i do not do government relations work. in fact, in fact, novartis sent me their contract which stated specifically that they wanted me to lobby, that they wanted me to provide access to government, including the president. that information, that paragraph was crossed out by me,

initialled and written in my own handwriting that says i will not lobby or do government relations work. >> so novartis representatives say that it was like they were hiring a nonregistered lobbyist so you disagree with that? >> i don't know what they said, sir, but the contract speaks for itself. >> have you ever contacted ybody in the administration? >> yes. >> to advocate on behalf of any aspect of any of your contracts? i ask unanimous consent, mr. chairman -- i ask unanimous consent -- >> the gentleman's time is expired. you may answer the question. >> i don't know what you're referring to, sir. >> mr. chairman -- >> mr. clay. >> mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> mr. cohen, i'm pleased you agreed to testify today voluntarily. in my view, we are all here for just one reason, and that's the

american people are tired of being lied to. they have been lied to by president trump. they've been lied to by the president's children. they have been lied to by the president's legal representatives. and it pains me to say that they have been even lied to by his congressional enablers who are still devoted to perpetuate and protect this giant con game on the american people. now mr. cohen, i'd like to talk to you about the president's assets since, by law, these must be reported accurately on his federal financial disclosure. and when he submits them for a bank loan. mr. cohen, you served for nearly a decade as then businessman

trump's personal attorney and so-called fixer. did you have -- did you also have an understanding of the president's assets and how he valued those items? >> yes. >> in november of 2017, crane's new york business reported that the trump organization provided, quote, flagrantly untrue revenue figures going back to at least 2010 to influence crane's ranking of the largest private companies in new york. according to the reports, while the trump organization reported nearly $9.5 billion in revenues in 2016, public filing suggested revenues were actually less than one-tenth of that. to your knowledge, did the president or his company ever inflate assets or revenues? >> yes. >> and was that done with the

president's knowledge or direction? >> everything was done with the knowledge and at the direction of mr. trump. >> tell us why he would do that and what purpose did it serve? >> it depends upon the situation. there were times that i was asked again with allen weisselberg, the cfo, to go back and to speak with an individual from forbes because mr. trump wanted each year to have his net worth rise on the forbes wealthiest individuals list. and so what you do is you look at the assets, and you try to find an asset that has, say, for example, 40 wall street which is about 1.2 million square feet. find an asset that is comparable. find the highest price per square foot that's achieved in the area. and apply it to that building. or if you are going off of your

rent roll, go by the gross rent roll times a multiple and you make up the multiple which is something that he had talked about. and it's based upon what he wanted to value the asset at. >> you know you have provided the -- this committee with copies of the president's financial statements or parts of them from 2011, 2012 and '13. and, mr. chairman, i would like to submit those for the record. mr. chairman, i'd like to submit the statements to the record. >> without objection. so ordered. >> thank you. can you explain why you had these financial statements and what you used them for? >> so these financial statements we used by me for two purposes. one was discussing with media, whether it was forbes or other magazines to demonstrate mr. trump's significant net worth. that was one function.

another was when we were dealing later on with insurance companies, we would provide them with these copies so they would understand that the premium, which is based sometimes upon the individual's capabilities to pay would be reduced. >> and all of this was done at the president's direction and with his knowledge? >> yes, because whatever the numbers would come back to be, we would immediately report it back. >> and did this information provided to us inflate the president's assets? >> i believe these numbers are inflated. >> and, of course, inflating assets, to boost your ego, it's not a crime, but to your knowledge did the president ever provide inflated assets to a bank in order to help him obtain

a loan. >> the gentleman's time has expird but you may answer that question. >> these documents and others were provided to deutsche bank on one occasion where i was with them in our attempt to obtain money so we could put a bid on the buffalo bills. >> thank you for your answer. >> i would like to yield to the gentleman from north carolina. >> i thank the gentleman. i want to ask unanimous consent to put into the record an article from stat which indicates that mr. cohen's promised access, not just trump, but also the circle around him. it was almost as if we were hiring a lobbyist, close quote. i asked unanimous consent. >> without objection. >> i ask unanimous consent that we put into the record a criminal referral for violating section 22 usc of the statute number 6. 611. i ask unanimous consent that my

letter referring mr. cohen for violating fara for illegal lobbying activity be entered into the record. >> without objection so ordered. >> i ask unanimous consent that the first order of business for this committee is for us to look in a bipartisan way at criminal referrals at the next business meeting. >> mr. -- >> these are not documents. there are objections. there are objections. >> so we are objecting to a unanimous consent request? is that what -- mr. chairman? >> yes. >> i'll yield back. >> now let me be clear. mr. heist, i'm going to give you your whole five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> mr. meadows, i -- the chairman made me the ranking member, made me aware that i had given a little more time to ms.

wasserman schultz. i was going to let you do that anyway, but i just want the committee to know that because there are so many members, i'm going to be strict on this five minutes, all right? thank you very much. you have five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. you claim you've lied but you're not a liar. set the record straight if you lied, you are a liar by definition. you also said a moment ago the facts are inaccurate. if they are facts, they are accurate and that would make you inaccurate. but i would like to take a moment to -- i'd like to know who you consulted with to prepare for today's hearing? lanny davis and who else? >> i consulted with my counsel, lanny davis, as well as michael monaco. >> all right. did you or michael or lanny davis or anyone else cooperate with the democratic majority to prepare for this hearing? >> i'm sorry, say that again, please. >> did you or anyone else on your team cooperate with the

democrat party in preparing for this hearing? >> we've spoken to the party. >> okay. did you prepare with chairman cummings or anyone on your team? >> i'm sorry, what do you mean prepare? >> prepare for this hearing. >> prepare. i prepared with my counsel. >> did you prepare with democrat majority or chairman cummings? >> we spoke with chairman cummings and the party. >> with chairman schiff? >> spoke with chairman schiff and his -- and his people as well. >> were there any other individuals acting as a liaze for you with the majority party? >> i'm sorry, sir. what are you saying? >> did you have a liaison other than these that mentioned that were working with the majority to prepare for this hearing. >> we spoke with the various individuals that you just raised, yes. >> tom stier, regarding him or

any of his representatives, anyone associated with him. is he or any of them paying lanny davis to represent you? >> not that i'm aware of. >> who is paying lanny davis? >> at the present moment, no one. >> so he's doing all this work for nothing? >> yes, sir. >> okay. >> and i hope so. >> i kind of doubt it, but how did lanny davis come to represent you? did he approach you, or did you approach him? >> i reached out to lanny davis at the recommendation of my former counsel over at mcdermott will and emery who knew mr. davis and -- >> so you reached out to mr. davis? >> i did, yes, initially. >> okay. so did you want to testify before congress or did he urge you to testify here? >> i was asked to come here. and i am here, sir, voluntarily

because it's my -- >> you were asked by who? did he ask you to come here? >> no, sir. >> okay. because he says that he did ask you to come here and that he convinced you and also that he did the same with chairman cummings as well. so your testimony here is that you approached lanny davis to represent you and to come here. he did not persuade you to come here. >> he did not persuade me. chairman cummings, which is part of the conversations that we engaged in with his people, as well as chairman schiff and others. we spoke in order to ask me to come here voluntarily. >> finally connecting of the dots here with mr. davis and you and, frankly, the chairman and perhaps others to be rather stunning that there is an agenda

for all this happening here today. and i believe, frankly, that that's to bring the president down to impugn the president. you have made an oath last time you were here and that oath meant nothing to you then. we had an oath here in this very room about a month ago. and it was, quote, be clear that i will seek the truth, nothing but the truth so help me god, end quote. sounds like an oath to me. the chairman made that statement in this very room last month. here we are today. our first big hearing with, as you -- and we all know, a convicted liar lying to congress, a criminal, and i believe this witness is totally incompatible with the stated goal of having to seek the truth in this hearing. this is the first time in the history of congress we have someone testifying here who has

already been convicted of lying to congress. so congratulations for being the first in congress to do that. and mr. cummings as well, i can't believe we have brought this committee to its knees in terms of losing its credibility. and it's a shameful mockery of what our purpose is. i yield back. >> gentleman's time is expired. mr. lynch. >> mr. chairman, let me pick up on those last comments. want to talk about a low point. how about mr. papadopoulos pled guilty. mr. manafort, convicted, pled guilty to two other charges. mr. gates pled guilty. mr. flynn pled guilty. mr. pineido, mr. vander, mr. kilimnik indicted for obstruction of justice. and for two years, you want to talk about an agenda, my friends on the other side of the aisle refused to bring some of these people up before the committee. so today, for the first day, we have one witness who voluntarily is coming forward to testify.

your side ran away from the truth. and we're trying to bring it to the american people. so -- mr. cohen. >> yes, sir. >> thank you for voluntarily coming before the committee to testify. i want to ask about your statements regarding trump tower and moscow, and i want to drill down some of the facts and details. you may not be aware of gurks th this, but this goes back a ways. mr. trump wrote he had ongoing discussions with soviet officials back then to build a luxury -- large, luxury hotel across from the kremlin. in partnership with the soviet union. so at that time, it was the soviet union. i want to ask you, in your filing with the special counsel mueller's office, the prosecutors wrote, and i quote, mr. cohen discussed the status

of -- and progress of the moscow project with individual one on more than the three occasions mr. cohen claimed to the committee. and he briefed family members of individual one with the company about the project. i know this is redundant, but mr. cohen, who are we referring to here with individual one? >> donald j. trump. >> and the company? >> the trump organization. >> okay. >> through a subsidiary. >> okay. and who are the family members that you briefed on the trump tower moscow project? >> don trump jr. and ivanka trump. >> now were these in the regular course of business or did the president or family request the briefings? >> this is the regular course of business. >> do you recall -- there's a question on the number of briefings. do you recall how many there might have been? >> i'm sorry? >> do you recall how many of these briefings there might have been? >> approximately ten in total. >> okay. all right. in your written remarks you also

wrote, and i quote, there are at least a half dozen times between the iowa caucus in january 2016 and the end of june when mr. trump would ask me, how is it going in russia, referring to the russia moscow tower project. how did the president communicate those questions to you? verbally or on the phone? >> verbally most of the time or virtually all of the time. he'd say, michael, walk with me. he was heading to a rally, to a car and as i would walk him to the elevator, he'd ask me questions quickly regarding a series of -- >> could there be any doubt about what he was referring to in terms of the project in russia? >> no, this would be it. otherwise, there would have been no reason to ask it of me. >> right. right. you also wrote, and i quote, to be clear, mr. trump knew of and directed the trump moscow negotiations throughout the campaign and lied about it, close quote. how did the president actually

direct the negotiations? >> after each -- >> what details did he direct? >> after each communication that i had, i would report back to him. and our goal was to get this project. we were interested in building what would have been the largest building in all of europe. sir, i -- if i can say one last thing. >> please go ahead. >> in regard to the gentleman's statements since this is on topic. the lies that i told to congress, in fairness, benefited mr. trump. it was in furtherance of my protection of mr. trump, which i stated in my testimony. and i am not protecting mr. trump anymore. and so, while i truly appreciate taking some of your time on to it, to attack me every single time about taxes, i have no credibility, it's for exactly that reason that i spent the

last week searching boxes in order to find the information that i did so that you don't have to take my word for it. i don't want you to. i want you to look at the documents and make your own decision. >> i need my -- >> sorry, sir. >> that's okay. let me just say, i don't think my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are afraid that you're going to lie. i think they're afraid you're going to tell the truth. >> thank you, sir. >> i yield back the balance of my time. >> the gentleman from ohio is recognized. >> i want to respond to mr. lynch. i want you to think about this: when have you ever see a federal agency whhre this has happened. james comey, fired, andy mccabe, deputy director, fired, under investigation as we speak, jim baker, f.b.i. counsel, demoted then left, currently under investigation by the u.s. attorney's office in connecticut, lisa page demoted and left. peter struck, demoted then