by Meg Wagner, Veronica Rocha and Amanda Wills, CNN — Feb 27, 2019
Cohen: "I regret the day I said yes to Mr. Trump."
President Trump's attorney Michael Cohen said he regrets the day he said "yes" to his boss.
"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," he said.
"I regret all the help and support I gave him along the way," he said.
Cohen said he had "misplaced loyalty" and he is ashamed that he "chose to take part in concealing Mr. Trump's illicit acts."
Here's how he put it:
"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 am ashamed because I know what Mr. Trump is. He is a racist, he is a conman, and he is a cheat."
Full Transcript: Michael Cohen’s Opening Statement to Congress — Feb 27, 2019
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Mr. Trump is a conman.
He asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair, and to lie to his wife about it, which I did. Lying to the First Lady is one of my biggest regrets. She is a kind, good person. I respect her greatly – and she did not deserve that.
I am giving the Committee today a copy of the $130,000 wire transfer from me to Ms. Clifford’s attorney during the closing days of the presidential campaign that was demanded by Ms. Clifford to maintain her silence about her affair with Mr. Trump. 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. I did that, too – without bothering to consider whether that was improper, much less whether it was the right thing to do or how it would impact me, my family, or the public.
I am 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 5 to my testimony shows, I am providing a copy of a $35,000 check that President Trump personally signed from his personal bank 14 account on August 1, 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.
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. 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 2017, one month into his presidency, I’m visiting President Trump in the Oval Office for the first time. [...]
When I say conman, 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 SAT scores.
Cohen, in closing statement, lists everything he says is wrong with Trump
NBC News — Feb 27, 2019
Cohen delivered a brief but emotional statement at the end of his public testimony, in which he summed up his objections to the president and his fears for the future.
"I fear that if he loses the election in 2020, that there will never be a peaceful transition of power," he said of Trump.
He then addressed the president directly, at times looking squarely into the TV cameras.
"We honor our veterans — even in the rain," Cohen said referring to a trip to France where Trump opted against attending a World War 1 memorial event. "You tell the truth, even when it doesn't aggrandize you."
"You don't attack the media and those who question what you don't like or what you don't want them to say and you take responsibility for your own dirty deeds. You don't use your power of your bully pulpit to destroy the credibility of those who speak out against you. You don't separate families from one another or demonize those looking to America for a better life. You don't vilify people based on the god they pray to and you don't cuddle up to our adversaries at the expense of our allies. Finally, you don't shut down the government before Christmas and New Year's just to simply appease your base. This behavior is churlish, it denigrates the office of the president and it's simply un-American. And it's not you," he said.
"So to those who support the president and his rhetoric as I once did, I pray the country doesn't make the same mistakes that I have made or pay the heavy price that my family and I are paying."
Cohen then thanked Chairman Cummings for his time.
Amy Klobuchar: Of the 2020 candidates, the Minnesota senator offered the most direct comments on the hearing, highlighting several articles on Cohen's testimony on Twitter: “This is a big deal: Michael Cohen says President Trump was involved in a hush money scheme. … This is even a bigger deal: Cohen has alleged that Trump knew in advance that the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks planned to publish hacked Democratic National Committee emails.” She also tweeted about Cohen acknowledging he "lied under oath to Congress" about talks on a proposed Trump Tower project in Moscow.
www.nbcnews.com — Live Blog — Feb 27, 2019
Analysis: Cohen came off as 'credible,' testimony will shape committee's next step
After Cohen's hearing came to a close, legal experts — as well as a former adviser to Trump's campaign — said they found Cohen a "credible" witness despite his own admitted lies and crimes.
"I think Cohen came across as very credible," Mimi Rocah, a former prosecutor for the Southern District of New York and an NBC News and MSNBC legal analyst, said on "Meet the Press Daily."
Rocah emphasized that Cohen didn't "go too far" in his testimony. "He tells us when he knows something and he doesn't try to implicate people in something that he can't," she said.
Sam Nunberg, a former adviser to Trump's 2016 campaign, agreed, and added he thinks Trump "hated today more than losing the shutdown."
[...]
www.nbcnews.com — Live Blog — Feb 27, 2019
Now we have Mr Cohen’s continuing testament against his former Boss.
Despite the fact, it is Mr Cohen repaying his “debt to society” … in a way that The Don probably never will:
Cohen’s former Boss has no respect for Cohen’s amending his ways; no respect for abiding by America’s laws; no respect for the intelligence of the average voter — the majority of whom want to get him out of office, as fast as democratically possible.
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Thanks, in some small part, to the testimony of former insiders like Cohen, who are now paying dearly, for their misguided “loyalties” to their former racist, conman, cheating Boss.
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IF there were any Justice left in the world …