President Trump’s sons cast doubt on Michael Cohen’s public testimony Wednesday, alleging their father’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen was once “lobbying” for the White House chief of staff position.
Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump made the claim in a volley of tweets after Cohen told lawmakers he wasn’t interested in a White House job.
“Michael was lobbying EVERYONE to be ‘Chief of Staff.’ It was the biggest joke in the campaign and around the office. Did he just perjure himself again?” Eric Trump tweeted.
“Nailed it. It really was the biggest joke of the entire transition,” Trump Jr. said in response. “The beginning of his bitterness was when he realized that was never going to happen. #Delusional.”
Nailed it. It really was the biggest joke of the entire transition. The beginning of his bitterness was when he realized that was never going to happen. #Delusional. https://t.co/ddizWugguU
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 27, 2019
As he testified to the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, Cohen denied that he ever wanted to work at the White House during a tense exchange with ranking member Jim Jordan of Ohio, who questioned why Cohen worked for Trump for 10 years.
“Mr. Cohen, how long did you work in the White House?” Jordan asked after Cohen delivered scathing testimony detailing his time working for Trump.
“I never worked in the White House,” Cohen said.
“That’s the point, isn’t it, Mr. Cohen?” Jordan said.
Cohen pushed back, saying he didn’t want to work at the White House, even though he was offered positions.
“I can tell you a story of Mr. Trump reaming out [former White House Chief of Staff] Reince Priebus because I had not taken a job where Mr. Trump wanted me to, which is working with Don McGahn at the White House General [sic] Counsel’s office,” Cohen said.
“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,” Cohen said.
[Read more: Michael Cohen fires back at Jim Jordan: ‘Shame on you’]
Jordan said Cohen’s behavior was “just like everyone else” who has severed ties with the Trump administration after not receiving jobs they were interested in.
“Here’s what I see. I see a guy who worked for ten years and trashing the guy he worked for for ten years. Didn’t get a job in the White House,” Jordan said. “And now you’re behaving just like everyone else who got fired or didn’t get the job they wanted. Like [former FBI Deputy Director] Andy McCabe, like [former FBI Director] James Comey, same kind of selfish motivation after you don’t get the thing you want. That’s what I see now and that’s what the American people see.”
Priebus and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner on the matter.
