Tuesday brings the first of three days of Michael Cohen. The man who threatened Donald Trump’s critics, paid off his victims, and, most important of all, arranged his bribes is going to appear before three different congressional committees to explain why this is a really good time for Cadet Bone Spurs to pay a long-delayed visit to Vietnam.
Cohen’s travel schedule this week offers less opportunity to sample good bánh cuốn (though Trump is more likely to be trying out the Hanoi McDonald’s which, yes, is a thing), but Cohen will be traveling from north to south … on Capitol Hill. On Tuesday, Cohen sits down behind closed doors with the Senate Intelligence Committee. Then, on Wednesday, it’s the start of two days in the House with a return visit to the Oversight Committee, followed by crossing the finishing line with the House Intelligence Committee. After that Cohen will get a well-deserved rest … of about three years in federal prison.
Unfortunately, neither the Senate nor the House Intelligence Committee meetings will be held in public. So while those investigating Trump’s crimes may get some satisfaction from his former fixer, everyone else will have to wait for either official releases or unofficial leaks. But the House Oversight hearing is in public, so expect Wednesday to bring some high C-SPAN ratings.
As the Washington Post reports, despite everything that’s already known, there are still a number of questions where Cohen’s testimony could blow open some doors. Among them are some that should be worrying to both Trump and those around him who are not already being fitted for their own orange jumpsuits.
- Did Donald Trump Jr. talk to his father about the Trump Tower meeting with Russian operatives either before or after it took place?
- Who instructed you to lie to Congress about the Moscow Project in your 2017 appearance, and just what did they say?
- Did Trump offer a pardon in exchange for continuing to cover his tracks?
- Who in the Trump campaign knew about the Moscow Project and proposed visits to Russia?
- How much did Trump coordinate with you and David Pecker in setting up the trap to catch and kill stories from those he slept with, and was it used in any instances other than the two we know about?
But the members of Trump’s legal team know they shouldn’t worry too much—because they’re counting on Republicans in Congress to confuse and diminish the value of anything Cohen might say.
The New York Times reports that Trump’s legal team has spent weeks preparing for Cohen’s testimony. Not, of course, by marshaling its facts, but by honing its attacks on Cohen’s character.
And Trump’s team is expecting Republicans in all three committees to do the heavy lifting of never bothering to ask Cohen anything substantive. Instead, it wants GOP reps to use their alternating time slots to “aggressively question Mr. Cohen’s credibility, trying to paint him as a liar and accusing him of fabricating stories to help his cause.” So every time Democrats spend five minutes getting Cohen to actually make a statement, any TV watchers will get a five-minute follow-up of Republicans dismissing anything he says and simply calling him a liar.
It’s a tactic intended to weaken the impact of anything Cohen may say, but it’s likely to be effective only for the handful who actually watch the hearing in full. For most people, who will hear reports of Cohen’s testimony, the scoffing won’t be a large part of the story. Except on Fox News, of course, where that’s all they will hear.
Cohen was spotted on Capitol Hill on Tuesday morning. Stand by for leaks.