Republicans are trying to upend Democratic plans to question President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen by demanding that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appear with him to fact-check his answers.
As well as asking Rosenstein to assess Cohen’s truthfulness, they also want to grill Rosenstein on his own actions. Democrats are all but certain to resist the move.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., members of the conservative Freedom Caucus, say Cohen is an admitted liar who was about to go to jail for failing to tell the truth to Congress. Rosenstein, they argue should testify with him before the House Oversight and Reform Committee this Wednesday.
Cohen is due to testify on Capitol Hill three times this week, including closed sessions before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday and the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday. His only public testimony will be before the House Oversight Committee.
In a letter to Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the committee chairman, the Republicans said that “Cohen has pleaded guilty to crimes of deception and lies, including lying to Congress.” They want to quiz Rosenstein because he has been the supervisor for both special counsel Robert Mueller and Geoffrey Berman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. Mueller and Berman have both investigated Cohen.
[Opinion: Michael Cohen’s testimony can’t be taken seriously because he’s always been a sad joke]
?#BREAKING: Read @Jim_Jordan & @RepMarkMeadows’s letter asking @RepCummings to add Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein to #Cohen hearing. https://t.co/sPGzFdSGzY pic.twitter.com/P0Nh7ElK3X
— Oversight Committee Republicans (@GOPoversight) February 25, 2019
In addition, they want to quiz Rosenstein on allegations made by former FBI general counsel James Baker and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe that Rosenstein invoked the 25th Amendment in discussions about removing Trump from office. Rosenstein is claimed to have even offered to wear a wire into the White House — allegations he has not responded to under oath.
Republicans have long had questions about Rosenstein’s decisions, such as his signing of FISA warrants, his authoring of a memo used by Trump to justify firing FBI Director James Comey, his appointment of Mueller, and his oversight of the special counsel investigation. Rosenstein’s replacement has already been nominated by Trump and is expected to take over next month.
Jordan said that Cohen’s testimony would not be believable and that he would “tell all kinds of crazy things about the president that we know aren’t true because he can’t be trusted.”
On Wednesday, Michael Cohen is coming to testify in front of the Oversight Committee.
For their first big hearing, the @OversightDems are bringing a guy to testify in front of Congress, who in two months is going to prison for lying to Congress. –@Jim_Jordan pic.twitter.com/1tURZ4294N
— Oversight Committee Republicans (@GOPoversight) February 25, 2019
Outlining a sweeping set of topics for Cohen, Cummings said his committee would avoid Russia-related questions but ask about any improper payments made in the 2016 election, campaign finance, Trump’s conflicts of interest, the Trump Hotel in D.C., the Trump Foundation, and the Trump Organization.
Jordan and Meadows have talked to Cohen’s attorney Lanny Davis — a Clinton confidant — telling him they would ask Cohen about his lies to Congress, his questionable business dealings, his foreign work, possible violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, and the fake “Women for Cohen” social media account he created.
