Michael Cohen Prepared to Give Public Testimony to House Oversight

Well, before he’s carted off to begin his three year sentence in prison, former Trump attorney and personal “fixer” has a date with the House Oversight Committee.

Now that Democrats have control of the House, look for them to make some interesting moves, as it pertains to the Russia probe.

This is probably the first of many of those moves, and the first of those moves to pull in a former member of Team Trump, who is also attached to special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.

Cohen has agreed to testify publicly before the panel on February 7, according to a statement from Cohen.

“I thank Michael Cohen for agreeing to testify before the Oversight Committee voluntarily,” said Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings, a Democrat from Maryland, in a statement. “I want to make clear that we have no interest in inappropriately interfering with any ongoing criminal investigations, and to that end, we are in the process of consulting with Special Counsel Mueller’s office.”

Thanks for clearing that up. There was actually some concern about how this might interfere or step on the testimony given by Cohen to Mueller’s team. I would suppose if they work together, any chance of stumbling over something not meant to be made public can be minimized.

And let’s face it. Who among us doesn’t want to see Michael Cohen testify in public?

Trump. I’m pretty sure Donald Trump doesn’t want to see this.

In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to a number of charges, including wire fraud, bank fraud, and most notably, campaign finance law violations, in relation to his help in setting up the payoff of two of Donald Trump’s mistresses, a month before the 2016 election.

Since that plea, the man who once said he’d take a bullet for Trump quickly flipped.

Mueller’s team described Cohen’s cooperation as providing “useful information” in regards to certain Russia-related matters.

One of the things Cohen provided to Mueller’s team was testimony that the Trump Organization was pursuing a lucrative business deal with Moscow, well after Donald Trump was the GOP nominee.

Mueller’s court filings revealed that Cohen had spoken to a Russian in 2015 who had offered “political synergy” with the Trump campaign while discussing Trump Tower Moscow.

We don’t have to get into what sort of ethical quagmire such a scenario presents.

In a statement to CNN, Cohen said he agreed to testify “in furtherance of my commitment to cooperate and provide the American people with answers.”

“I look forward to having the privilege of being afforded a platform with which to give a full and credible account of the events which have transpired,” Cohen said.

Cool.

For a decade, Cohen was a willing lackey for Donald Trump, even though multiple reports from observers and associates suggest that the devotion was not returned. In fact, Trump was rather abusive.

And Cohen kept coming back for more.

But, as it became clear that there is a price to pay for doing the bidding of Trump, Cohen became more concerned about his wife and children, and their well-being.

His cooperation with special counsel has been a major irritant to the president, who has lashed out at his former fixer on Twitter, calling him “weak” and “a rat.”

Cohen addressed his relationship with Trump at his sentencing, saying he had “blind loyalty to this man that led me to choose a path of darkness over light.”

“Recently, the President tweeted a statement calling me ‘weak,’ and he was correct, but for a much different reason than he was implying,” Cohen said at the time. “It was because time and time again I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds rather than to listen to my own inner voice and my moral compass.”

Well, better late than never, I suppose.

Look for questions about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, as well as the Trump Tower Moscow deal.

Either way, the tweetstorm that’s coming is going to be epic!