>> i believe that the top signature is donald trumjr. and that the bottom signature i believe is allen weiselburg's. >> can you tell me the date of that check? >> march 17 of 2017. >> 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 prident have arranged for you to get this check if he was supposedly playing no role in his business? >> because the payments were signed 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? >> there was no retainer

agreement. >> would don jr. or mr. weiselburg have more information about that? >> about the entire discussions and negotiations prior to the election and don jr. would have cursory information. >> now, here is another one. this one appears to be signed by donald trump himself. is that his signature? >> that is donald trump's signature. o >>t me make sure i understand. donald trump wrote you a check u of his personal account while he was serving as president of the united states america to reimburse you for hush money payments to ms. clifford. t is that what yling the american people today? >> yes, mr. chairman. >>ne final question. the president claimed he knew

nothing about these payments. his ethics filing said he owed nothing to you. baseon your conversations wi him, is there any doubt in your mind tesident trump knew exactly what he was paying for? >> there is no doubt in my mind and i truly believe there is 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 will yield to e gentleman. >> i want to make sure that youe and one day while we are in the courthouse and take you for every penny you still don't have and cter your daily beast and everybody else that you possibly know. so i'm warning you, tread very effing lightly because what i'm going to do to you is going to be effing disgusting. do you understand me? 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 ad that you admitted to saying, did you do that to protect dona trump? >> i did it to prote mr. trump, donald trump jr., ivanka trump and eric trump. >> and in your sentencing statement back in december in t front judge, you said this, mr. cohen. my weakness can be characterized ldas a blind loyalty to do trump, a blind loyalty that ledt me to choose aof darkness. is that accurate, mr. cohen? >> i wrote that. w >> yte that and said that in front of the judge is that right. >> that's correct. ad >> let me ou a few other things 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 of 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 servi, 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 fail to pay 1.4 million in taxes to th u.s. treasury was that out of some blind loyalty to the president of the united states>> t was not. the number was 1.38 and change and i have paid that money back to the irs. >> i think the american people appreciate that. >> i would like to say it was over the course of five years, apoximately 260,000 a rear >> that's what i said. f thate years. >> yes. ia when you made false statements to fina

institutions concerning a home equity line of credit in 2013, 2014 a 2015 and you pled guilty to making the false statements to those banks, was that all done to protect the president? >> no it was not. >> how about this one? c when yated the fake twitter account women for cohen and paid a firm to post tweets like this one. ld in a wf lies, deception and fraud, we appreciate this honest guy at michael cohen tgif, handsome, sexy. was that done to protect the president? >> no. i didn't actually set that up. it was done by a young lady that worked for red finch. during the course of the campaign it is somewhat crazy and wild. we were having fun. that is what it was, sir. we were having fun. >> was it done to protect the president? >> is it a fake itter kwaekt?

>> it was a real twitter account. >> did you pay a firm to create this? >> it was done by a young lady that works for the firm. again, sir, we were having fun during a stress full time. oi >> the is, did you lie to protect the president or lie to help yourself? >> i'm not sure how that would help me. >> i'm not sure how it did, either. >> more than half the people on that site are men. >> the chairman gave you a 30 minute opening statement and yoo have a histolyinovover andnd or frankly don't take my word for it, take what the court said. ut take what the rn district of new york said. cohen did crimes that we hrked by a pattern of deception and that permeat professional life. these crimes were distinct in their harms but very common set of circumstances. they each involve deception and

were 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 your trashed the president of the united states of america. mr. cohen, how long did you wort for donamp? >> approximately a decade. >> ten years. t. >> that's corr >> and you said all these bad things about the president there in the last 30 minutes and yet you worked for him for ten years? all ofhose bad things. if it's that bad i can see you working m for ten days, maybe ten weeks, maybe even ten months. you worked for him for ten years. mr. cohen, how long did you work in the white house? >> i never worked in the white t,use. >> that's the posn't it? >> no, sir. >> yes it is. >> no it's not. >> you wanted to work in the white house and you didn't get brought to the dance. i was extremely proud to be

tersonal attorney to the president of the ustates 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 rening out reince priebus ntcause i had not taken a job where mr. trump me to which was working withon mcgan at the white house general council's office. what i saiat the time and i brought a lawyer in who produced a memo as to why i should not go in because there woulde no torney client privilege. and in order to handle some of the mattat i talked about in my opening that would be best suited for me not to go in and that every president had a personal attorney. >> here is what i see. i see a guy work 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 gow you're behaving just like everyone else whfired and didn't get the job they wanted

like andrew mccabe, comijames comey. >> all i got is what i wanted to see my senior year of my son in g gh school and waiting for my daughter graduatom college to come back to new york. i got exact laep what i want. >> prison. >> i received exactly what i wanted. >> the gentleman's time has expired. >> mr >> thank you for being here today. i served as the chair of the demecratic committee at the of the russia hacks. i nsnt to be clear, my quest are not about the harm done to any individual by wiki leaks and the russians. he it's aboutossible and likely harm to the united states

of america and our democracy. i have a series of questions th i hope will connect more of these dots. is it your testimony that mr. trump had advanced knowledge of the russia wiki leaks release of the dnc's e-mails? >> i cannot answer that in a yes or no. he had advanced notice there was going to be a dump of e-mails, but at no time did i hear the specificity of what the e-mails were going t >> but you do testify today that he haddvanced knowledge of their imminent release? >> that is what i had statny in my testi >> and that he shared that outcome. >> yes ma'am. >> did he share the information >> i am not aware of that.

>> was ivanka and jared still involve in the deal. he >>ompany was involved in the deal which meant the family was involved in the deal. >> if mr. trump and his daughter and soare involved in the russian trump tower deal, is it possible the whole fily is conflicted or compromised with a thforeign adversy in the m 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 wiki leaks and to indicate the campaign's interest in the strategic release of the illegally hacked materials? >> i'm not aware of that sgr 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 aprently authority. >> no. he was a free agent. >> a free agent that was reporting back to the president what he had done. >> correct.

he frequentlreached 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 wiki leaks. how can we corroborate what you are saying? >> i don't know, but i suspect that the specialounsel's office and other government agencies have the informion that you are seeking. >> moving on to a little later inp 016, a major wiki leak d happens hours after the access hollywood tape is released. are you aware of mr. trump signaling for this dump. >> i am unaware of that. i was t in the country at the time of the bully bush tape. i was in london vierting my daug >> 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 toi the presidency? is he capable of that? >> it calls on siomuch specul it would be unfair for me. >> you have a tremendous amount of experience. >> mr. trump is all about winning. he will do what is necessary. >> iyour opinion and experience, would he have the potential to cooperate or ud cowith a foreign power to es win the ency 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 w testimony,ldn't use the word colluding. was the 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 c terms lusion. i was not rt of the campaign. i don't know the other conversations that mr. trump had with other individuals. there is just so many dots that all seem to lead to the same -- >> 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. w and thhave roger stone informing the president just before the democratic natial convention that wiki leaks was going to dp 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 expired. u may answer her inquiry. >> 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 wi esidency at all costs? >> so let me say that this is a matter that is currently being handled by the hse select and senate select intelligence committees. so i would rather not answer that specific question other than just to tell you that mr. t trump's desiwin 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. we never expected to win the election. so this was just business as usual. >> tha you. >> ranking member jordan, chairman of this committee promised members of the american people a fair and open process yet democrats have limited the scope of the hearing and issued gag order to try to tell members of the committee what we can and cann talk about. my colleagues on the other side of the aisle claim that they want the truth and transparency and fair oversight yet democrats witnessed to testify before congress tod is none other than a scorned man who is going to prison r lying to congress. let that sink in. he is going to prison for lying to congress. he is the star witness to congress. if youead the sentencing report on mr. cohen, words likep eceptive and greedy are scattered throughout that report. it paints a picture of a narcissi

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

occasions break campaignfian fie laws with his own donations. the star witness ia guy who broke compliance laws himself. you graciously allow us to ask n quesof mr. cohen on the president's dealings with the irs and tax law. ur 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 is the best witness you got? next up, with permission of the chairman i get to ask mr. cohenbit his perspective on thei president's ss dealings. let me get that straight. the witness liedo 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. e viously mr. chairman the witness may prodcuments that she suggests incriminates d the prt, 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 lied about delivering his own child which is why he has had to correct the record. en ladies andemen, how on earth is this witness credible? ioth all the lies and dece and 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 hwants to accomplish his own personal goals. he is a fake witness and his presence here is a travesty. i hope the american people see ckrough this. i know the people n tennessee will. and with that statement, sir, i have a few questions of the witness. with your loss of your law emcense, i think you mentioned in your opening stt that you had been disbarred, what is

your source of income in the future? >> i don't expect i will have a source of income when i'm in federal petentiary. >> is there a book deal coming or anything like that? >>ow have no book deal right in the process. i have been contacted by many cluding for television a movie, if you want to tell me who you woullike to play you i am more than happy to write the name down. >> i would like to correct the statement on me. >> let me ask one other question. who id your expenses to be here today?ai >> whomy expenses? i paid my expenses. >> mr. chairman, i would like tl the remaining of my time to the ranking member. >> how many times have you talked to the special counsel's office? >> seven. >> did they talk to all in preparation for today's hearing between the seven times

you talked to them prior to your sentencing? have you h with the special counsel's office between sentencing and today? >> i don't understand your question. >> youalked to him seven times in the sentencing memorandums that were in front of the court december. how many times have you talked to the special counsel's office since then up to today's appearance here in congress? >> you may answer the question. >> i'm sorry. i don't have the answer to that. >> i'll come back. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. cohen, in your ten years of working for donald trump, did he control everythi 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 th happened at the trump organization from t

r 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 e you to try to reach settlements with women in 1615 and >> i'm sorry, ma'am. i don't have the answer to that. i would have to go back and try to re-collect. it is certainly the two we know about. d >> wyou think the president did not provide the recurate information in his 2017 financial discloorm? what was he trying to hide? he corrected oer forms but didn't correct this one. me

he the ps on the reimbursement ofunds i extended on his behalf. >> going back to the story as i stated when we left the ofce and we went to his office in order to make the determination on how the money was going to be wired to the interest on a lawyers account for keith davidson in california, i had asked allen to use his money, didn't want to use mine. he said he couldn't. we then decided how else we can do it. he askede whether i know anybody who wants to have a party one of his clubs that could pay me 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. 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 ms. clifford or it was going to end an being sold to televisio 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. while you're facing the o consequencgoing to jail, he is not. >> i believe that they amended a financial disclosure form and there is a foot note somewhere buried. i don't recall specifically what it says, but there is a foot note buried somewhere. >> can you describe, michael, to the american people catch and kill? >> catch and kill is a method that exists when you aking with a news outlet. in this specific case it was a.m.i., national inquirer and

others where they would contact me or mr. trump or someone and statthat there is a story th is percolating out there that you may be interestein. 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 he. trump long before i started for mr. trump inenate. >> 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, harry levine of

a.m.i., as well, allen garden of the trump organization, as well. >> thank you very much for your testimony. mr. chairman, this is a story of redemption. >> tha you. >> mr. cohen, in your testimony you stated that you began work r for the trumnization as a lawyer dealing with real estate transactions, is that correct? >> that's correct. >> prior to coming to congress, i served as the director of two different banks so i have seen s hundf loan applications. to try to determine your credibility here today i wanted to ask you a couple of real estate transaction questions to see how in fact you operate. according to the southern district of new york ksosecutors, you lied to b o secure loans by falsely stating the amoudebt you were carrying. t question to you, was it donald trump's faut you knowingly committed a crime of the section to defraud a bank. >> no it is 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 youre referring to. i would like to say one thing. i would like just to respond. when we are talking about the home equity li of credit which is what i believe you ar referrinto, no. >> we are talking about the summer home. >> i never purchased a summer home. no individual at any bank had ever lost a dollar with me. i owe no money to any bank. >> the banks usually find out if somebody is trying to deceive them. n, mr. coid your so-called blind loyalty to the president cause you to draud the bank for your own personal gain? >> i take exception to that because there has never been a fraud. i never defrauded any bank. >>et's dig deeper. according to the southern

district of new york you failed to disclose more than $20 million in liabilities as well as tens of thousands oars of monthly expenses. that is according to the he so district of new york. now, mr. cohen, you being a lawyer, surely you knew you were breaking the law. why would you have done that? a >> i'm npa. i pled guilty. i am going to prison as a result of it. because you are a con? >> no, sir. because i pled guilty and i am going to be doing e time. i have caused tremendous, tremendous pain to my family and i take no -- >> when the bank found out about the liabilities that you failed to disclose, you lien to the bank. this is according to the southern district of new york. it said it had been expungeed when you shifted the debt to nk another so apparently, according to the

raformation that we received, your intent to d the bank was for the desire to purchase the summer home for $8.5 million in. >> no, sir. that was off of an equity line considering i had less than a 50% loan to value on the assets and there was a pre-exting line of credit that existed years before the date that you're referring to where this is all surrounding new york city taxi medallions. >> you uerstand that when you failed to disclose liabilities especially $20 million in liabilities, that is, in fact, thaud. >> except even wit20 million in liability -- >> how much was it? >> the medallions were worth over $45 million. >> you called donald trump a cheat in your opening testimony. what would you call yourself? >> a fool.

>> you calling -- okay. no comment on that. in i appreciate it. >> you said we werearch of the truth. i don't believe michael cohen it capable ling the truth. i hope as this committee moves forward thathen we have the opportunity to subpoena witnesses, we subpoena witnesses that are not recently disbarred, are not convicted felons and miwitnesses that haven't ced bank fraud and tax fraud. that is how we are going to determine the truth. mr. chairman, i yield th balance of my time to the ranking member. >> i would make one point. we just had a five minute debate where mr. cohen diutes what the southern district of new york found he was guilty of b committik fraud. if this statement doesn't say it all, cohen's consciousness of wrong doing, instinct is to blame others is strong. they are looking at that statement. hi

remorse is nonexistent. he just debated saying i really didn't do anything wrong. >> that's not what i said and you know that is not what i said. d i pled guilty take responsibility for my actions. >> the gentleman's time has expired. >> shame on you, mr. jordan. that's not what i said. 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 take responsibility for my mistakes. i am remorseful. and i am going to prison. i will be away from my wife and family for years. e so befu turn around and plyou cast more dispersionse understand, there are people watching you today that know me a ole 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 go g to prison. >> mat the centeof the reasons you're going to prison is conviction for campaign finance violations. en and theyr around some salacious revelations. the "washington post" reported or aired an access hollywood video. it set a record for the number of people tched, crashed the newspaper's server.

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 ?ce and was he ced 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 daughter who was studying. 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 srt making phone calls to various different news outlets that you have la onships with. what we want to do is just to claim that this was men locker room talk. >> was there concern about the election in particular?

>> the answer is yes then couple that with karen mcdougal which came out around the same time skpmpt then on top of that the stormy daniels matter. >> and these things happen in the month before the election and almost one after the other. the stor daniels revelation wherprosecutors and official learned of that matter and prosecutors stated that the officials at the magazine contacted you about the story. the magazine, of course, is the national enquirer. is that correct that they did

come to you? >> yes ma'am. >> were you concerned about this news story becoming public righs after the acollywood study in terms of impact on the election? >> i was concerned about it, but more imporntly, mr. trump was concerned about it. >> that was my next question. si what was the pnt's concern about these matters becoming public in october as we were about go into an election? >> i don't think anybody would i ute 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 conrned with the effect that it had had on the campaign, on how women were seeing him, and ultimately

l ether or not he would have a shot in the geneection. >> so you negotiated the $130,000 payment. >> t $130,000 number was not number that was actually negotiated. it was told to me by keith davidson that this was the number that ms. clifford wantedy finally completed that deal as it were on october 25th 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. it was again some communications back and forth between myself and keith davidson. and timately it came to eith do it or don't at which time i had gone into mr. trump's office as i d conversation. d every and he had told me that he had

spoken to a couple of friends and it is 130,000, not a lot of money and we should st do it so go ahead and do it. i was at the time with allen where he directed us tack to the office and figure this all out. >> hank you, mr. chairman. >> mr. cohen, do you know lynn patton? 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 ms. patton? >> i am responsible for lynn patton joining the trump organization and the job she knrrently holds. >> i can glad you ledge that because you made some very demeeng comments about the president that she doesn't agree with. 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 ose? >> as neither should i as the son of a holocaust survivor. >> but, mr. cohen, i guess what i'm saying is i have talked to h president over 300 tiempzmes. i have not one time heard a rah st comment out of his mo in private. do you have proof of those conversations? do you have tape recordings of those conversations. >> no, sir. >> you taped everybody else. >> that's not true, sir. >> you haven't taped anybody? >> i have taped. >> how many times have you taped individuals? >> maybe 100 times. >> i heard it is over 200 times. >> i think it is approximaly about 100 from what i recall. as yod me a question, sir.

>> do you have proof, yes or no? >> i do. >> where is the proof? >> ask ms. patton how many people who are black are executives at the trump organization?th answer is zero. >> i would ask unanimous consent that her entire statement be put in theecord? >> without objection. >> let me go on a little bit further. did you collect $1.2 million or so from navartis. >> i did. >> for access to the trump administirtion? >> no, >> why did you collect it? >> because they came to me based upa my knowledge of the eni donald trump -- let me finish. e >> didpay you $1.2 million to give them advice? >>es, they did. ib a mulion-dollar conglomerate came to me looking for information, nothing that is

unusual here in d.c., looking for information and they lieved that i had a valu the value was the insight that i was capable of offering them. >> 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 it? >> how many times. >> i don't recall. >> did you ever talk to them? >> i spoke to them on several occasions, yes. >> how many? >> six times. >> six times. $230,000 a call. >> i also would like to bring to your attention -- >> this is my five minnot yours. did you get money from the bank of kaazi azakhstan? >> i did. >> for what purpose? >> the purpose was because the

former ceo of that bank had ubsconded with between 4 to $6 billion and some of that money was here in the united states th an sought my assistance in terms of finding, locating that money and helping them to re-collect it. >> are you saying that all the reports that you wer in some estimates over $4 million to have access and understanding of the trump administration, you're saying all of that was to just paiou just because you are a nice guy? >> i am a nice guy but more importantly -- >> the record reflects that your not a nice guy. >> each and every contract contained the clause in my contracts that said i will not lobby and i do not do government relations work. f t, novart s sent me their contract which stated specifically that they wanted me e lobby. that they wanted provide access to government including the president. that information, that paragraph was crossed out by me,

initialled and written saying i will not lobby or do government relations work. o >>vartis representatives say it was like they were hiring a nonregistered lobbiest. do you disagree with that? >> i don't know what they said, sir. >> have you ever contacted anybody in the administration?es >> >> to advocate on behalf of any aspect of any of your contracts? i ask unanimous consent, mr. chairman. i k unanimous consent -- >> the gentleman's time is expired. you may answer the question. >> i don't know what you are referring to, sir. >> mr. chairman -- >> thank you. mr. cohe i am 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 li bein to. they have been lied to by president trump. they hav president's children. they have been lied to by the president's legal representatives. and it pains me to st theyee haveeven lied to by his congressional enablers who are still devoted to perpetuating and protecting this giant con game on the american people. now, mr. cohen, i would li to talk to you about the en press assets. since by law these must be reported accurately on his federal financial discsure. and when he submits them for a bank loan. mr. cohen, you served for nearly a decade as being businessman

trump's personal attorney d so-called fixer. did you also have an understanding of the president's assets and how he valued those items? >> yes. >> in november of 2017, cranes new york business reported that the trump organization provided, quote, flagrantly untrue revenue figures going back to at least 2010 to influence ranking of the larger private companies in new york. according to the reports, while the trump organizationted nearly 9.5 billion in revenues in 2016, public filings suggested revenues were actually less than one-10th of that. to your knowledge, didhe 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 the direction of mr. trump. >> tell us why he would do that and what purpose did it serve?up >> it depend the situation. there were tes that i was asked with the cfo to go back and to speak with an individual from forbes because mr. trump wanted each year to have his neh worth rise oforbes wealthiest individuals list. 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 le comparfind the highest price per square foot that is achiev in the area, and apply it to that building. or if you are going off of your

rent role, you can go by the gross rent role times the multiple and make up the multiple which is sog that he had talked about. based upon what he wan value the asset at. >> you kw, you have provided this committee with copies of the prident's financial statements or parts of them from 2011, 2012 and '13. mr. chairman, i would like to it suhose for the record. mr. chairman, i would like to submit thetatements for the record. >> ordered. >> thank you. yo caexplain why you had these financial statements and at you used them for? >> so these financial statements were used by me for two purposes, one was discussing with media whether it was forbes or other magazines to denstrate mr. trump's significant net worth. thatas one function.

another was when we were dealing later on with insurance companies, we would provide them with these copies so that 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 e,mbers would come back to we would immediately report it back. >> and did this information provided to us infla the president's assets? >> i believe these numbers are inflated. >> and, of course, inflating assets to win a wspaper poll to boost your ego is not a crime, but to your knowledge did the president provide inflated e

to a bank in order to help him obtain a loan? >> the gentleman's time is expired but you may answer the question. >> these documents were provided to deutsche bank in one occasion while i was with them in our attempt to obtain money so that we can put a bid on the buffalo bills. >> thank you for yr answer. >> i yield to the gentleman from north korea. >> i thank the gentleman for yielding. i want to -- which indicates that mr. cohen's promise to access not just trump but also the circle around him, it was w almost as were hiring a lobbiest. i ask unanimous consent. ec >> without oon. >> i ask unanimous consent that we put into reco a criminal referral for violating section 22 usc of the statute number 611.

i ask unanimous consen my letter referring mr. cor violating for illegal lobbying activity be entered into the record. >> without objection. us >> i ask unanionsent that the first order of business for this committee is for us to look at a bipartisan way at criminale als at the next business meeting. >> these are not documents. ec they are oons. >> so we are objecting to a unanimous consent request? >> yes. >> i will yield back. >> let me be clear. i'm going to give you your whole five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> mr. meadows, the chairman ar

made me that i had given a m litte time to ms. wassermann schultz. i want the committee to know that because there are so many mbers, i will be strict on this five minutes. thank you very much. >> mr. cohen, you claim at you lied but you are not a liar. if you lied, you are a liar by definition. you said the facte are inaccu if they are facts they are accurate and that would make you inaccurate. i would like to know who you consulted with to prepare for y' tohearing. lanny davis and who else? >> i consulted with my counsel, lanny davis as well as michael monaco. >> did you or michael or lanny lanny davis or anyone else cooperate with the democrat majority to prepare. >> i'm sorry? >> did anyone else on your team

cooperate with the democrat party? >> we have spoken to the party.p >> did ypare with chairman cummings or anyone on your teamu >> what doean by prepare? >> prepare for this hearing. >> i prepared with my counsel. >> did you prepare with democrat majority or chairman cummings? >> we spoke with chaman cummings and the party. >> with chairman schiff? >> spoke with chairman schiff and his people, as well. e >> were thy other individuals acting as a liaison for you with the majority party? >> i'm sorry, sir. what are y saying? >> did you have a liaison other e than you mentioned who w working with the majority to prepare for this hearing? >> we spoke with the various individuals that you just raised, yes. ga >> tom stier, ing him or

any of his representatives, anyone associated with him, is he or any of them paying lanny davis to represent you?ot >>hat i'm aware of. >> who is paying lanny davis? >> at the present moment no one. >> he is doing this work for nothing? >> yes, sir, and i hope so. >> i kind of doubt it. how did lanny davis come to reprent 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 emery who knew mr. davis. >> you reached out to mr. davis? >> i did, yes, initially. >> okay. so did you want to tesfy before congress or did he urge you to testify here? >> i was asked to come here.

and i am here, sir, voluntar y because >> you were asked by who?sk did heou to come here? >> no, sir. >> because he sa that he did ask you to come here and that he convinced you and also that he did the same wh chairman cummings, as well. so your testimony here is that you approached lan davis to represent you and to come here. he did not persuade you to come here. persuade me. actually chairman cummings which is part of the conversations that we engaged with his people as well as chairman schiff and oths, we spoke in order to ask me to come here voluntarily. >> i finthe connecting of the dots here with mr. davis and you and frankly the chair men and he to be rather stunning, that there is an agenda for all

this happening here today. believe frankly that that is . bring the president down, to impugn the preside you 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 a it was, quote, be clear that i will seek the truth, nothing but th truth so help me god, end quote. it 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 a cvicted 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 on history ofess we have someone testifying here who has

already been convicted of lying to congress. congratulations for being the first in congress to do that ans mr. cummingsell. i can't believe we have brought this committee to its knees in terms of losing its credibilitya it's aful mockery of what our purpose is. i yield back. >> the gentleman's time has expired. mr. lynch. >> let me just pick up on those last comments. want to talk about a low point? how about mr. papadopoulos pled guilty, mr. manafort convicted and pled guilty. mr. gates ed guilty, mr. flynn pled guilty. mr. kilimnik indicted for obstruction of justice. my friends on the other side of the aisle refuse to bring any of these people up before t committee. today for the first day we have one witness who vontarily is

coming forward to testify. your side ran away from the truth and we are trying to bring it to the american people. so mr. cohen, first of all, thank you for voluntarily coming before the committee to testy. i want to ask you about your statements regarding trump tower and moscow. and i want to drill down on some of the facts and details. you may not be aware of it, but this goes back a ways. back in 1987, mr. trump wrote that he had had ongoing discussions with soviet s officick then to build a luxury hotel across from the kremlin in partnership with the soviet union. at that time it was the soviet union. i want to ask you, in your filing with the special counseli mueller's , the prosecutors wrote mr. cohen diussed the status and

progress of the moscow project with iividual 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 n, mr. coho are you referring to when you refer to individual one?al >> dj. trump. >> and the company? >> the trump organization through a subsidry. >> and who are the family mbers that you briefed on the trump tower moscow project? >> don trump jr. and ivanka trump. >> were these in the regular course of business or did the president or family request the briefings. >> in the regular course of business. >> do recall how many of these briefings there might have been? >> approximately ten in total. >> 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 of 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. hodid the president communicate those questions to you? was it verbaphy or over the e? >> verbally most of the time, virtually all of the tim he would say to me michael cohen, he was heading to a rally or a car and i would walk him tw the elevator, ld ask me questions quickly regarding the series -- >> could it be about what he was referring to in terms of the project in russia? >> no. this would be it. otherwise there would be no as to ask it of me. >> you also wrote, and i quote, to be clear, mr. trump knew of and directed the trump moscow e negotiations throughout campaign and lied about it, closed quote. how did the president actually

direct the negotiations? 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 ha been the largest building in all of europe. sir, if i can say one last thing in regard to the gentleman's statements since this is on topic. the lies that i told to congr s ngress, in fairness, benefitted mr. trump. rt it was in rance of my protection of mr. trump, which i stated in my testimony. and i am not protecting mr. trump anymore. while i truly appreciate taking some of your time on to it, to attack me every single about taxes, i have no credibility, is 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 ve o take my word for it. i don't want you to. i want you to look at the documents. i want you to make your own decision. sorry, sir. >> let me just my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are afraid that yore going to lie. i think they're afraid that t you're goingo tell the truth. >> i thank you, sir. >> i yield back the balance of my time. >> the gentlemen from ohio is recognized. >> i appreciate the gentlemen for yielding. >> i want to respond to mr. lyh. i want you to think about this. when have you ever seen a federal agency where this is happened. james comey, director, fired. andy mccabe, deputy director, atred, lied three times under oath, under investn, right, as we speak. jim baker, fbi counsel, demoted and then left, currently under investigation by the u.s. attorney's office in ticut, lisa page, demote then left. peter strzok, deputy head of te contelligence, demoted then fired. that's what happened. that's what we're concerd about.