democracy. the criminal trial former president donald trump resumed in manhattan with this x lawyer

michael cohen picking the stand to testify about the hush money deals he helped to arrange at the direction of his former boss in order to benefit mr. trump's 2016 presidential campaign according to the associated press mr. cohen told the jury everything required mr. trump's sign off as he was questioned by prosecutors. cross-examination by the defense is still to come in the trial five years ago michael cohen testified for house lawmakers house lawmakersabout his work fn president trump. highlighting the actions he took at the direction of his former boss here's a portion of the and thank him for participating in today's hearing. mr. cohen, if you would please rice and i will begin to swear you in. raise your right hand. do you swear or affirm that the testimony that you are about to give is the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god?

let the record show the witness answered in the the affirmative. thank you. you may be seated. the microns are sensitive to please speak directly into them. without objection your written statement will be made part of the record. with that, mr. cohen, you are recognized to give an oral presentation of your testimony. is your mic on? >> yes. >> chairman cummings, ranking member jordan, and members of the committee, thank you for inviting me here today. i have asked this committee to ensure that my family be protected from presidential threats and that the committee be sensitive to the questions pertaining to ongoing investigations. i thank you for your help and for your understanding. i am here under oath to correct the record, to answer the

committee's questions truthfully and to offer the american people what i know about president trump. i recognize that some of you may doubt and attack me on my credibility. it is for this reason that i have incorporated into this opening statement documents that are err refutable and demonstrate that the information you will hear is accurate and truthful. 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. i regret all the help and support i gave him along the

way. i am ashamed of my own failings and publicly accepted responsibility for them by pleading guilty in the southern district of new york. "i" 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" ashamed that i chose to take part in concealing mr. trump's illicit acts rather than listening to my conscience. "i" ashamed because i know what mr. trump is. he is a racist. he is a conman, and he is a cheat. he was a presidential candidate who knew that rogerer stone was talking with julian assange about a wikileaks drop on democratic national committee

emails. i will explain each in a few moments. i am providing the committee today with several documents. and these include a copy of a check mr. trump wrote from his personal bank account after he became president to reimburse me for the hush money payments i made to cover up his affair with an adult film star and to prevent damage to his campaign. copies of financial statements from 2011, 2012 and 2013. that he gave to such institutions such as deutsche bank. a copy of an article with mr. trump's handwriting on it that reported on the auction of a portrait of himself. that he arranged for the bidder ahead of time and then reimbursed the bidder from the account of his non-profit charitable foundation with the

picture now hanging in one of his country clubs. and copies of letters i wrote at mr. trump's direction that threatened his high school, colleges and the college board not to release his grades or s.a.t. scores. i hope my appearance here today, my guilty plea and work with law enforcement agencies are steps along a path of redemption that will restore faith in me and help this country understand our president better. and before going further, i want to apologize to each member, to you as congress as a whole. the last time i appeared before congress i came to protect mr. trump. today, i am here to tell the truth about mr. trump. i lied to congress when mr. trump stopped negotiating the

moscow tower project in russia. i stated that we stopped negotiating in january of 2016. that was false. our negotiations continued for months later during the campaign. mr. trump did not directly tell me to lie to congress. that's not how he operates. in conversations we had during the campaign, at the same time i was actively negotiating in russia for him, he would look me in the eye and tell me, there is no russian business. and then go on to lie to the american people by saying the same thing. in his way, he was telling me to lie. there were at least a half dozen times between the iowa caucus in january of 2016 and the end of june when he would ask me, how is it going in russia, referring

to the moscow tower project? you need to know that mr. trump's personal lawyers reviewed and edited my statement to congress about the timing of the moscow tower negotiations before i gave it. so to be clear, mr. trump knew of and directed the trump moscow negotiations throughout the campaign and lied about it. he lied about it, because he never expected to win. he also lied about it because he stood to make hundreds of millions of dollars on the moscow real estate project. and so i lied about it too. because mr. trump had made clear to me through his personal statements to me that we both knew to be false. and threw his lies to the country that he wanted me to

lie. and he made it clear to me because his personal attorneys reviewed my statement before i gave it to congress. over the past two years i have been smeared as a rat by the president of the united states. the truth is much different. and let me take a brief moment to introduce myself. my name is michael dean cohen. and i am a blessed husband of 24 years and a father to an incredible daughter and son. when i married my wife, i promised her that i would love her. i would cherish her, and i would protect her. as my father said countless times throughout my childhood, you my wife and you my children are the air that i breathe. so my laura and to my sami and to my jake, there is nothing i wouldn't do to protect you.

i have always tried to live a life of loyalty, friendship, generosity and compassion. it's qualities my parents ingrained in my siblings and me since childhood. my father survived the holocaust. thanks to the compassion and selfless acts of others. he was helped by many who put themselves in harm's way to do what they knew was right. and that is why my first instinct has always been to help those in need. and mom and dad, i am sorry i let you down. as the many people who that know me best would say, i am the person that they call at 3:00 a.m. if they needed help. and i proudly remember being the emergency contact for many of my children's friends when they were growing up, because their parents knew that i would drop everything and care for them as

if they were my own. yet last fall i pled guilty in federal court to felonies for the benefit of, at the direction of and in coordination with individual number one. and for the record, individual number one is president donald j. trump. it is painful to admit that i was motivated by ambition at times. it is even more painful to admit that many times i ignored my conscience and acted loyal to a man when i should not have. sitting here today, if seems unbelievable that i was so mesmerized by donald trump, that i was willing to do things for him that i knew were absolutely wrong. for that reason, i have come here to apologize to my family,

to my government, and to the american people. accordingly, let me now tell you about mr. trump. i got to know him very well, working very closely with him for more than ten years hayes executive vice president and special counsel. and then as personal attorney when he became president. when i first met mr. trump, he was a successful entrepreneur, a real estate giant. and an icon. being around mr. trump was intoxicatesing. . when i were in his presence you felt like you were involved in something greater than yourself. that you were somehow changing the world. i wound up touting the trump narrative for over a decade. that was my job. always stay on message. always defend. it monopolized my life.

at first, i worked mostly on real estate developments and other business transactions. shortly there after, mr. trump brought me into his personal alive and private dealings. over time, i saw his true character revealed. mr. trump is an enigma. he is complicated, as am i. he is both good and bad, as do we all. but the bad four outweighs the good. and since taking office, he has become the worst version of himself. he is capable of behaving kindly, but he is not kind. he is capable of committing acts of generosity, but he is not generous. he is capable of being loyal. but he is fundamentally disloyal. donald trump is a man who ran for office to make his brand great, not to make our country

great. he had no desire or intention to lead this nation, only to market himself and build his wealth and power. mr. trump would often say this campaign was going to be the greatest infomercial political history. he never expected to win the primary, never expected to win the general election. the campaign for him was always a marketing opportunity. i knew early on in my work for mr. trump that he would direct me to lie to further his business interests. and i am ashamed to say that when it was for a real estate mogul in the private sector i considered it trivial. as the president, i consider it significant and dangerous. but in the mix, lying for mr. trump was normalized and no one

around him questioned it. in fairness, no one around him today questions it either. a lot of people have asked me about whether mr. trump knew about the release of the hacked documents, democratic national committee e-mails ahead of time. and the answer is yes. as i earlier stated, mr. trump knew from roger stone in advance about the wikileaks drop of emails. in july of 10u6r, days before the democratic convention, i was in mr. trump's office when his secretary nounsed that roger stone was on the phone. mr. trump put mr. stone on the speaker phone. mr. stone told mr. trump that he had just gotten off the phone with mr. assange. and mr. assange told mr. stone that within a couple of days there would be a massive dump of

email that is would damage hillary clinton's campaign. mr. trump responded by stating to the effect, wouldn't be that great. mr. trump is a racist. the country has seen mr. trump court white supremacists and bigots. you have heard him call poorer countries "shithole"s. s in private he is worse. he asked me if i could name a country run by a black person that went a "shithole." this was when barack obama was president of the united states. and while we were driving through a struggling neighborhood in chicago, he commented that only black people could live that way. and he told me that black people would never vote for him because they were too stupid. and yet, i continued to work for

him. mr. trump is a cheat. as previously stated, i am giving to the committee today three years of mr. trump's personal financial statements from 2011, 2012 and 2013 which he gave to deutsche bank to choir about a loan to buy the buffalo bills and to forbes. these are exhibits 1 a, 1 b and 1 c to my testimony. it was my experience that mr. trump inflated his total assets when it served his purposes. such as trying to be listed amongst the wealthiest people in forbes and deflate the his assets to reduce his real estate taxes. i am sharing with you two newspaper articles, side by side, that are examples of mr. trump inflating and deflating

his assets, as i said, to suit his financial interests. niece are exhibit 2 to my testimony. as i noted, i am giving the committee today an article he wrote on and sent to me that reported on an auction of a portrait of mr. trump. in is exhibit 3 a to my testimony. mr. trump directed me to find a straw bidder of him to purchase a portrait of him being axed off at a art hamptons event. the objective was to ensure the portrait auctioned last would go for the highest price of any portrait that afternoon. the portrait was purchased by the fake bidder for $60,000. mr. trump directed the trump foundation which is supposed to be a charitable organization, to repay the fake bidder, despite keeping the art for himself.

and please see exhibit 3 b to my testimony. and it should come as no surprise that one of my more common responsibilities was that mr. trump directed me to call business owners, many of whom are small businesses, that were owed money for services and told them that no payment or a reduced payment would be coming. when i asked mr. trump -- when i told mr. trump of my success, he actually reveled in it. and yet, i continued to work for him. mr. trump is a conman. he asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair and to lie about it to his wife, which i did. and lying to the first lady is one of my biggest regrets, because she is a kind, good

person. and i respect her greatly. and she did not deserve that. and i am giving the committee today a copy of the $130,000 wire transfer from me to miss clifford's attorney during the closing days of the presidential campaign that was demanded by miss clifford to maintain her silence about her affair with mr. trump. and 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. and 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. and i am going to jail in part because of my decision to help mr. trump hide that payment from the american people before any voted a few days later. as exhibit 5 a to my testimony shows, "i" providing a copy of a $35,000 check that president trump personally signed from his personal bank account on august 1st of 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 stlam mts that was paid throughout the year while he was president. other checks to reimburse me for

the hush money payments were signed by donald trump jr. and allen weisselberg. and see for that example 5 b. 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. and 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 in scene. in february of 2017, one month into his presidency, i'm visiting president trump in the oval office for the first time. and it's truly you a inspiring. he is showing me all around and pointing to different paintings. and he says to me something to

the effect of, don't worry, michael, your january and february reimbursement checks are coming. they were fedexed from new york. and it takes a while for that to get through the white house system. as he promised, i received the first check for the reimbursement of $70,000 not long there after. 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 s.a.t. scores. as i mentioned, i'm giving the committee today copies of a letter i sent at mr. trump's direction, threatening these schools with civil and criminal actions if mr. trump's grades or s.a.t. scores were ever disclosed without his

permission. and these are under exhibit 6. the irony wasn't lost on me at the time that mr. trump in 2011 had strongly criticized president obama for not releasing his grades. as you can see in exhibit 7, mr. trump declared, let him show his records. after calling president obama a terrible student. the sad fact is that i never heard mr. trump say anything in private that led me to believe he loved our nation or wanted to make it better. in fact, he did the opposite. when telling me in 2008 or 2009 that he was cutting employees salaries in half, including mine, he showed me what he claim was a $10 million irs tax refund and said he couldn't believe how stupid the government was for

giving someone like him that much money back. during the campaign, mr. trump said he did not consider vietnam veteran and prisoner of war senator john mccain to be a hero because he likes people who weren't captured. at the same time, mr. trump tasked me to handle the negative press surrounding his medical deferment from the vietnam draft. mr. trump claimed it was because of a bone spur. but when i asked for medical records, he gave me none. and said that there was no surgery. he told me not to answer the specific questions by reporters but rather offer simply, the fact that he received a medical deferment. he finished the conversation the following comment, you think i'm stupid? i'm not going to vietnam.

and i find it ironic, mr. president, that you are in vietnam right now. and yet, i continued to work for him. the questions have been raised about whether i know of direct evidence that mr. trump or his campaign colluded with russia. i do not. and i want to be clear. but i have my suspicions. sometime in the summer of 2017 i read all over the media that there had been a meeting in trump tower in june of 2016 involving don junior and others from the campaign with russians including a representative of the russian government and an e-mail setting up the meeting with the subject line, "dirt on hillary clinton." something clicked in my mind. i remembered being in a room with mr. trump probably in early june of 2016, when something

peculiar happened. donald trump, jr. came into the room and walked behind his father's desk, which in and of itself was unusual. people just didn't walk behind mr. trump's desk to talk to him. i recall don junior leaning over to his father and speaking in a low voice, which i could clearly hear, and saying, the meeting is all set and i remember mr. trump saying, okay, good. let me know. what struck me as i looked back and thought about the exchange between don junior and his father was first, that mr. trump had frequently told me and others that his son don junior had the worst judgment of anyone in the world. and also, that don junior would never set up any meeting of significance alone, and certainly not without checking

with his father. i also knew that nothing went on in trump world, especially the campaign, without mr. trump's knowledge and approval. so i concluded that don junior was referring to that june 2016 trump tower meeting about dirt on hillary with the russian representatives when he walked behind his dad's desk that day and that mr. trump knew that was the meeting don junior was talking about when he said, that's good, let me know. over the past year or so, i have done so real soul searching. i see now that my ambition and the intoxication of trump power had much to do with the bad decisions in part that i made. to you, chairman cummings and ranking member jordan and the other members of this committee, the members of the house and

senate, i am sorry for my lies and for lying to congress. and to our nation, i am sorry for actively working to hide from you the truth about mr. trump when you needed it most. for those who question my motives for being here today, i understand. i have lied, but i am not a liar. i have done bad things, but i am not a bad man. i have fixed things, but i am no longer your fixer, mr. trump. i am going to prison and have shattered the safety and security that i tried so hard to provide for my family. my testimony certainly does not diminish the pain that i have caused my family and friends, nothing can do that. i have never asked for, nor would i accept, a pardon from

president trump. and by coming today, i have caused my family to be the target of personal, scurry lus attacks by the president and his lawyer, trying to intimidate me from appearing before this panel. mr. trump called me a rat for choosing to tell the truth, much like a mobster would do when one of his men decides to cooperate with the government. as exhibit 8 shows, i have provided the committee with copies of tweets that mr. trump posted, attacking me and my family, only someone burying his head in the sand would not recognize them for what they are -- encouragement to someone to do harm to me and my family. i never imagined that he would engage in vicious, false attacks on my family, and unleash his tv

lawyer to do the same and i hope this committee and all members of congress on both sides of the aisle make it clear that as a nation, we should not tolerate attempts to intimidate witnesses before congress and attacks on family are out of bounds and not acceptable. i wish to especially thank speaker pelosi for her statements in exhibit 9 to protect this institution and me, and the chairman of the house permanent select committee on intelligence adam schiff and you, chairman cummings, for likewise defending the institution and my family against the attacks by mr. trump and also the many republicans who have admonished the president as well. i am not a perfect man.

i have done things that i am not proud of and i will live with the consequences of my actions for the rest of my life. but today, i get to decide the example i set for my children and how i attempt to change how history will remember me. i may not be able to change the past but i can do right by the american people here today. i thank you for your attention. i'm happy to answer the committee's questions. >> thank you very much, mr. cohen. i recognize myself. mr. cohen, before i start, i want to make sure you really understand something. you have admitted lying to congress, to this very body, and now you're going to prison for it. do you, mr. cohen, recognize the gravity of your offenses? you are a lawyer, right? >> as of yesterday i am no

longer a lawyer. i have lost my law license, amongst other things. >> but you understand the gravity of this moment? >> i most certainly do, mr. chairman. >> i want you to really hear this, mr. cohen. we will not tolerate lying to this congress by anybody. we are in search of the truth. do you understand that? >> i do. >> now the president has also made numerous statements that turned out to be inaccurate. for example, he said he knew nothing about the hush money payments to miss clifford. in his 2017 financial disclosure form, said he never owed money to reimburse you for those payments. yet, in your testimony, mr. cohen, you said that you met with the president in the oval office in february of 2017 and

discussed his plans to reimburse you for money you paid. you say he told you and i, quote, don't worry, michael, your january and february reimbursement checks are coming. is that accurate? and was that in the oval office? >> the statement is accurate but the discussions regarding the reimbursement occurred long before he became president. >> would you explain that? >> back in 2017, when -- actually i apologize in 2016, prior to the election, i was contacted by keith davidson who is the attorney or was the attorney for miss clifford for stormy daniels, and after several rounds of conversations

with him about purchasing her life rights for $130,000, what i did each and every time is go straight into mr. trump's office and discuss the issue with him. when it was ultimately determined, this was days before the election, that mr. trump was going to pay the $130,000, in the office with me was allen weisselberg the chief financial officer of the trump organization, he acknowledged to alan that he was going to pay the 130,000, and that allen and i should go back to his office and figure out how to do it. so yes, sir, i stand by the statement that i gave, but there was a history to it. >> in your testimony, you have -- you said you brought some checks, is that right? you said you brought some checks? >> yes, sir. >> let me ask you about one of

these. this from the trump trust that holds the president's businesses, can you tell me who signed this check? >> i believe that the top signature is donald trump jr. and the bottom signature i believe is allen weisselberg's. >> can you tell me the date of that check? >> march 17th of 2017. >> now 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 president have arranged for you to get this check if he was supposedly playing no role in his business? >> because the payments were designed 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 agreement? >> there is no retainer agreement. >> could don junior or mr. weisselberg have more information about that? >> mr. weisselberg for sure about the entire discussions and negotiations prior to the election, and don junior would have cursory information. >> now here's another one. this one appears to be signed by donald trump. himself. is that his signature? >> that is donald trump's signature. >> so let me make sure i understand. donald trump wrote you a check out of his personal account while he was serving as president of the united states

of america to reimburse you for hush money payments to miss clifford? is that what you are telling the american people today? >> yes, mr. chairman. >> one final question. the president claimed he knew nothing about these payments. his ethics filing said he owed nothing to you. based on your conversations with him, is there any doubt in your mind that president 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 yield to the gentleman from [ inaudible ]. >> i will make sure that you and i meet one day while we're in the courthouse and i will take you for every penny you still

don't have and i will come after your daily beast and everybody else that you possibly know. i'm warning you, tread very f'ing lightly because what i am going to do to you is going to be f'ing disgusting, do you understand me? >> who said that? >> i did. >> did you say that, mr. cohen n your testimony on page 2, you said you did things for mr. trump in an effort to protect him. was that statement that i just read that you admitted to saying, did you do that to protect donald trump? >> i did it to protect mr. trump, donald trump, jr., ivanka trump and eric trump. >> in your sentencing statement back in december in front of the judge, you said this, mr. cohen, my weakness can be characterized as a blind loyalty to donald trump a blind loyalty that led me to choose a path of darkness,

is that right? >> i wrote that. >> you wrote and said that in front of the judge. >> that's correct. >> let me read a few other things and 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 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 service, 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 that don't make that in a lifetime, when you failed to pay $1.4 million in taxes to the u.s. treasury, was that out of some blind littlety to the president of the united states? >> it was not. but the number was $1.38 million and change and i have paid that money back to the irs at this time. >> i think the american people appreciate that --

>> i would like to say it was over a course of five years. approximately $260,000 a year. >> that's what i said, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015. that's five years. >> yes. >> when you made false statements to financial institutions concerning a home equity line of credit, tax medallions on your park avenue apartment in 2013, 2014, 2015, and you pled guilty to making those false statements to those banks, was that all done to protect the president? >> no, it was not. >> how about this one, when you created the fake twitter account, women for cohen, and paid a firm to post tweets like this one, in a world of lie, deception and fraud, we appreciate this honest guy @michael cohen, #, tgif, #handsome #sexy was that done to protect the president? >> i didn't set that up.

it was done by a young laid that worked for red fitch and during the course of the campaign you would know it's somewhat crazy and wild and we were having fun. we were having fun. >> was it done to protect the president? >> that was not done to protect the. >> the was it a fake twitter account. >> it was a real twitter account. >> did you pay the firm to create this -- >> it was done by a young lady that works for the firm and again sir, we were having fun during a stressful time. >> the point is, mr. cohen, did you lie to protect the president or help yourself? >> i'm not sure how that helped me, sir. more than half the people on that site are men. >> here's the point. the chairman gave you a 30-minute opening statement and you have a history of lying over and over and over again and frankly you don't have to take my word for it, take what the court said, take what the southern district of new york

said, cohen, did crimes that were marked by a pattern of deception and that permeated his professional life. these crimes were distinct in their harms but bear a common set of circumstances they each involve deception and were each, 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 you trashd the president of the united states of america. mr. cohen, how long did you work for donald trump? >> approximately a decade. >> ten years? >> that's correct. >> you said all these bad things about the president there in the last 30 minutes, and yet you worked for him for ten years? >> i mean, if it's that bad i can see you working for him for ten days, maybe ten weeks, maybe even ten months, but you worked for him for ten years.

mr. cohen, how long did you work in the white house? >> i never worked in the white house. >> that's the point, isn't it? >> no, sir. >> yes, it is. >> no, it's not sir. >> you wanted to work in the white house. >> no, sir. >> you didn't get brought to the dance. >> sir i was extremely proud to be personal attorney to the president of the united states 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 reaming out reince priebus because i had not taken a job where mr. trump wanted me to working with don mcgahn at the white house general counsel's office. >> sir, one second. what i said at the time and i brought a lawyer in who produced a memo as to why i should not go in because there would be no attorney/client privilege and in order to handle some of the matters that i talked about in my opening it would be best suited for me not to go in and that every president had a

personal attorney. >> here's what i see. i see a guy who worked for ten years and here trashing the guy he worked for for ten years, didn't get a job in the white house, and now and now you're behaving just like everyone else who has got fired or didn't get the job they wanted like andy mccabe, like james comey, same kind of selfish motivation after you don't get the thing you want. that's what i see here today and i think that's what the american people -- >> mr. jordan, all i wanted was what i got. to be personal attorney to the president, to enjoy the senior year of my son in high school and waiting for my daughter who is graduating from college to come back to new york. i got exactly what i