The Cohen hearing closes

Chair Cummings opens the second half of the hearing publicly refuting Mark Meadows' rage about Cohen's statement on the foreign representative form. Meadows tries to recoup by insisting the Committee require Cohen to tell them what money he received from any foreign entity.

Ro Khanna calls the checks wrote to Cohen for payments to Stormy Daniels the "smoking gun" you provided this committee.  In the SDNY campaign finance fraud case, Executive-1 is Weisselberg, Executive-2 is Junior.  A criminal conspiracy to commit financial fraud.



Jimmy Gomez, who is also on the Ways & Means Committee, asks about Trump's taxes and financials, leading to the probability that Trump is lying when he says under tax audit.

I was waiting for someone to ask about the New York Times exposé on Trump's finances that hardly made a blip in the news.  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to the rescue.  That's all she asked about, after following up on some things that were asked earlier.



A few of the Democrats did that.  Actually asked for names and places to look for more information.  Which, really, is proper investigation.

Rashida Tlaib is bent on becoming the bane of the Democratic party.  She implied that Meadows is a racist and started a huge dustup that Cummings managed to smooth over.

Cohen made a closing statement in which he said that he fears if Trump wins the 2020 election there won't be a peaceful transfer of power.

Elijah Cummings is preaching a closing.  Emotional, righteous and real.  I'll post it when I can get a video clip.

Meanwhile...




Earlier, a black Democratic Congresswoman called it an insult, but didn't outright call it racist.  Tlaib was forced to walk it back when...







A lighter view:







UPDATE:  Here are some clips of Cummings' closing statement, thanks to Aaron Rupar.





Jim Jordan sat there beside Cummings and repeatedly tried to shame him for holding this "sham", this "circus" as the first hearing.  Cummings never interrupted or corrected him in place.  I think that was a mistake, but glad to have him at least bring it up in his closing speech.

UPDATE:



I thought Meadows' behavior throughout the whole thing was disgraceful.  And I was surprised when Cummings said they're good friends.

UPDATE:

The full hearing (video from USA Today)

UPDATE:



Ha!

Live-tweeting the hearing

If you can't or don't want to watch the Cohen hearing, here are some people who did it for you:

Daniel Dale  And when he says someone was shouting, he's correct.  There were indeed some shouters.  Republicans, of course.  Trying to out-indignant each other.  I guess that's the pattern since Lindsey Graham's outburst at the Kavanaugh hearing.  It apparently played well for Trump.

Aaron Rupar provides video clips in his posts.

Here's one I liked.




A couple of points I haven't made so far:

Democrat Jackie Speier asked Cohen about how many times he threatened people at Trump's direction.  He finally comes up with more than 500 times, which includes threatening reporters with lawsuits.

Somebody asked him if he's aware of any other criminal behavior by Trump that hasn't been covered, and he said, yes, but it's part of the SDNY investigation so he can't talk about it.  He also says that Trump never repaid David Pecker for the "catch and kill" money Pecker paid for her story, and that wasn't the only time that happened.  I wonder what Pecker is telling investigators.

Several Republicans complained that the Democrats were horrible for limiting what they were allowed to ask about.  (That was a Democratic complaint when Nunes headed the investigation.)  But, in fact there are some topics that Cohen would have had to refuse to answer because they're being investigated by Mueller and/or the SDNY.  Nobody bothered to waste time pointing that out.

Cohen said he was a Democrat until Steve Wynn had him change so he could become the RNC finance chairman.  I think somebody needs to get an investigation going into the RNC.  I think there may be a lot of shit there, including perhaps collusion with Russia to secure the election for Trump.

Also, I'll point out that one of the Democrats asked for Cohen's original documentation, which he says Trump's lawyers (including Jay Sekulow and Abbe Lowell) edited, that comprised his false statement to Congress about the Moscow Trump Tower project.  That could be a very big deal.

And then...



...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:



Well, if Cohen can find any documentation, we'll find out.

UPDATE:

The full hearing (video from USA Today)

Follow up to Representative Meadows' raging faux pas

I'm guessing he didn't read it and just thought he knew what it said.   Because if he had, he wouldn't have tweeted this:



Did somebody not say these jackasses shouldn't be tweeting during the hearing?



Annette, Annette, Annette.  Wait until he finds out.  Sadly, I doubt many people who are cheering this will bother to retract.



Indeed.

UPDATE:

The full hearing (video from USA Today)

UPDATE:



Ha!

Lunch break for the Oversight Committee

At last I have an answer as to why the Trump Tower Moscow project fell.  Cohen says he was unable to get proof of who owned the land to get a clear title before Trump was elected to office.

Justin Amash, who after his mild and non-combative, non-accusatory questioning, is going to be ostracized by his fellow Republicans, asked, "What truth does Trump fear most?"  There were several minutes of hesitation and re-asking before Cohen said it was too difficult a question to answer.

Cohen was browbeat regarding a form he signed (I think in preparation for the hearing) by one Republican, whose name I forget and will add in when I find it. (Mark Meadows)  The man tried to make it seem as though - and demanded the Committee follow up on seeing that Cohen get charged with violating FARA requirements for having lied about his represenations that he didn't lobby for any foreigners.  Cohen kept trying to argue that the form didn't require him to list foreign companies, which he admitted to, only governments, but the Congressman, in a righteous fury thought he landed a blow by saying that the form did ask for any foreign entities.  Cohen finally said he'd look at it again after the hearing and amend it if necessary.  A few interrogators later, Katie Hill (D-CA) says the form does not in fact ask for any foreign entites - just for foreign governments.  Oops, asshole.  I wonder if one of his staff thought that was a point, of if he himself actually misread the form.

GOP folk are losing so big that when they yield their time to ranking member Jordan, he's reduced to asking questions and when he gets the answer, just saying, "Wow" sarcastically.   After that, nobody has yielded their time to him.  I never imagined they'd be so bad at this.



Indeed.

Regarding being left hanging on Jamie Raskin's question about other instances of possible hush money payment, Peter Welch asks about other instances.  Cohen relates the question of a possible  love child with an employee, which an elevator operator told some magazine he knew about.  David Pecker paid him  $15,000 for the story in a "catch and kill" move.  Cohen says they turned up nothing.  He also says the rumor of an elevator tape showing that Trump hit Melania is bull, because he knows that Trump would never ever do anything like that.  He's got a lot more faith in Trump than I do.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:





I'm guessing he didn't read it and just thought he knew what it said.   Because if he had, he wouldn't have tweeted this:



Did somebody not say these jackasses shouldn't be tweeting during the hearing?



Annette, Annette, Annette.  Wait until he finds out.  Sadly, I doubt many people who are cheering this will bother to retract.



UPDATE:

The full hearing (video from USA Today)

UPDATE 3/1:

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa

Representative Jamie Raskin just asked Cohen about other hush money payments than to Karen McDougal (in a "catch and kill" purchase).  In the questioning and answering, Cohen said, not in connection with other women (emphasis on "women").  Just dropped that in there and was not followed up.  Will somebody ask about what those other instances of hush money were for?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  Peter Welch caught that and asks about other instances.  Cohen relates the question of a possible  love child with an employee, which an elevator operator told some magazine he knew about.  David Pecker paid him  $15,000 for the story in a "catch and kill" move.  Cohen says they turned up nothing.

UPDATE:

The full hearing (video from USA Today)

A break in the Cohen hearing

I wasn't prepared to believe Michael Cohen has actually gotten a conscience, and maybe I still don't believe it, but unlike Manafort and Stone, he's doing a very good job of being believable, so maybe I'm not giving him enough credit.  The Republicans are all about complaining that he's not believable, and they're beating him up pretty good.  Or at least they're trying.  The blows are mainly not landing.  Cohen started out deflecting them, and by the time they are taking their break, he's actually turning them back on the Republicans by claiming (correctly) that they're doing what he used to do: protecting the president to their own detriment.

His attorney - Lanny Davis - is working pro bono.  The Republicans keep trying to suggest somebody - most likely they mean the Clintons - is paying the man.  Cohen says he's going to pay Davis when he gets out of prison and has an income again.  When doubt was cast that an attorney would agree to wait three years to get paid, Cohen looked over at Davis, and Davis gave a shrug and a nod, indicating that's exactly what he would do.  Cohen then answered, "I guess he thinks it's worth it."



Well, Cohen did say in his written opening statement that Trump Sr said Junior has lousy judgment.



That was in response to Cohen saying that Trump feels he can do whatever he wants and that when he said he could shoot somebody on 5th Ave without repercussion, he wasn't joking.  He's sure of it.



Several of the Republicans who seem to be especially poor at questioning yield some of their time to Jim Jordan, the Republican ranking member, whereupon he lays into Cohen.



They're back.


Oh, good one:  Cohen answers a question by saying the American people don't care about he's dealt with his taxes; what they care about is Trump's.

UPDATE:

The full hearing (video from USA Today)

Cohen's exhibit: Trump's hush money checks

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Let's check in on Roger Stone

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Attorney Ken White advises Matt Gaetz

Ken wisely took a snapshot of that Gaetz tweet, because it was subsequently removed.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

A rare show of solidarity among reporters

Way to be.  Hopefully this will become a trend.

Question:  Is there a representative of the Special Counsel's Office in attendance to object to any answers Cohen might give that interfere with the SCO's investigations?