Michael Cohen, the former personal lawyer and “fixer” for President Trump, will testify in an open setting before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee next month.
The high-profile hearing is voluntary, and it will come come roughly a month before he heads to prison to serve a three-year prison sentence on March 6.
In December, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in a hush-money scandal. Apologizing in federal court in Manhattan, he said he took “full responsibility for each act that I plead guilty to: the personal ones to me and those involving the President of the United States of America.”
The sentence came after he was charged by both federal prosecutors in New York, as well as special counsel Robert Mueller.
In August, Cohen first pleaded guilty to eight charges of bank and tax fraud, as well as campaign finance violations. In doing so, he implicated Trump. For those violations, he will serve 36 months.
Then in November, Mueller’s office charged him in a separate case with lying to Congress, for which he will serve two months for pleading guilty to that single count. Cohen will serve the two sentences concurrently.
Cohen, 52, said Thursday that he will give “a full and credible account of the events that have transpired.”
“In furtherance of my commitment to cooperate and provide the American people with answers, I have accepted the invitation by Chairman Elijah Cummings to appear publicly on February 7,” Cohen said in a statement. “I look forward to having the privilege of being afforded a platform with which to give a full and credible account of the events which have transpired.”
It is not clear when Cummings formally issued an invitation to Cohen to testify.
On Thursday, Cummings said he was “in the process of consulting” with Mueller’s office, and the committee “will announce additional information in the coming weeks.”
“I want to make clear that we have no interest in inappropriately interfering with any ongoing criminal investigations,” Cummings said in a statement.
Cummings and other Democrats promised they would use their new oversight powers to investigate the White House and those associated with President Trump.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said he welcomes Cohen’s testimony before the Oversight panel, but that “[i]t will be necessary, however, for Mr. Cohen to answer questions pertaining to the Russia investigation, and we hope to schedule a closed session before our committee in the near future.”
It was also not immediately clear if Cohen will appear publicly or privately before any other congressional committees before the Feb. 7 hearing.
The public testimony will likely enrage Trump, who has already called him a “rat” for cooperating with federal investigators, and sought to distance himself from the man who once said he would take a bullet for the president.
