Former longtime Donald Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen submitted two checks from the president that he received in 2017, which Cohen said were part of a reimbursement for the hush money payment he made to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Cohen testified before the House Oversight Committee Wednesday that he paid $130,000 using a home equity loan to Daniels to keep her quiet about an affair Cohen said she had with Trump.
Cohen submitted two checks that he says were part of Trump’s reimbursement for the hush money payment.
The first check dated August 1, 2017 from a Donald J. Trump account at Capital One Bank for $35,000 was signed by the president.
Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani previously admitted that Trump reimbursed Cohen for the hush payment.
Cohen also submitted another check, dated March 17, 2017, from Trump’s “Revocable Trust Account” at Capital One Bank. Cohen testified that the check was signed by Donald Trump Jr. and Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg.
“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,” he testified. “I am providing a copy of a $35,000 check that President Trump personally signed from his personal bank 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.”
Cohen alleges Trump knew about Wikileaks DNC email dump:
Cohen testified that indicted longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone told Trump during the 2016 campaign about an upcoming release of emails stolen from the DNC that Cohen claimed Stone learned from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
“He was a presidential candidate who knew that Roger Stone was talking with Julian Assange about a WikiLeaks drop of Democratic National Committee emails,” Cohen testified. “In July 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 of ‘wouldn’t that be great.’”
Cohen says Trump indirectly suggested he lie to Congress:
Cohen alleged that Trump indirectly suggested that he lie to Congress about negotiations about a Trump Tower Moscow project that continued long into the presidential campaign.
“I lied to Congress about when Mr. Trump stopped negotiating the Moscow Tower project in Russia,” he testified. “I stated that we stopped negotiating in January 2016. That was false – our negotiations continued for months later during the campaign…There were at least a half-dozen times between the Iowa Caucus in January 2016 and the end of June when he would ask me ‘How’s it going in Russia?’ – referring to the Moscow Tower project.”
“To be clear: Mr. Trump knew of and directed the Trump Moscow negotiations throughout the campaign and lied about it,” he added. “He also lied about it because he stood to make hundreds of millions of dollars on the Moscow real estate project.”
