President Trump says Michael Cohen has been 'threatened by the truth'
Citing threats, President Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen postpones congressional testimony; chief White House correspondent John Roberts reports.
The House Intelligence Committee announced it will postpone a closed-door interview with former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen until later this month, citing the “interests of the investigation.”
Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Wednesday that Cohen’s testimony has been postponed until Feb. 28.
Cohen was originally slated to appear before the committee this Friday.
MICHAEL COHEN SUBPOENAED TO TESTIFY BEFORE SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE
This is the second congressional appearance for Cohen that has been rescheduled. Last month, Cohen attorney and adviser Lanny Davis announced they would reschedule his testimony before the House Oversight Committee, citing alleged “ongoing threats” against Cohen’s family from President Trump and his attorney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
After accepting the House Intelligence Committee’s invitation, Schiff thanked Cohen and warned the president not to make “improper comments.”
“Efforts to intimidate witnesses, scare their family members, or prevent them from testifying before Congress are tactics we expect from organized crime, not the White House,” Schiff said last month. “These attacks on Mr. Cohen’s family must stop.”
Meanwhile, on the other side of Capitol Hill, the Senate Intelligence Committee issued a subpoena for Cohen to appear before their panel. It remains unclear when Cohen could appear before their committee to testify, but Davis signaled that he would comply with the committee’s demand.
Cohen previously testified in private before the Senate Intelligence Committee in August 2017. In November, as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress during that deposition.
Cohen lied about the timeline of a Trump real estate project in Moscow, claiming that his communications with Russia on the deal ended in January 2016—prior to the Iowa caucuses. In his guilty plea, he acknowledged that he had communications with Russian officials about a potential Trump Tower project in Moscow up until June 2016—when Trump had already secured the GOP nomination for president.
DATE SET FOR COHEN TO TESTIFY BEFORE HOUSE INTEL COMMITTEE, AS 2 NEW LAWYERS JOIN HIS LEGAL TEAM
Cohen hired Davis in July to represent him in the criminal investigation into his personal business dealings and involvement in arranging hush-money payments to former Playboy model Karen McDougal and adult film star Stormy Daniels in the weeks leading up to the 2016 presidential election in exchange for their silence about alleged sexual encounters with Trump.
In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance and other violations. Prosecutors and Cohen himself said he orchestrated payments of more than $130,000 to McDougal and Daniels at Trump’s direction.
Cohen is not expected to report to prison until March 6. He has expanded his legal team, adding Michael Monico, a former assistant U.S. Attorney from the Northern District of Illinois, and longtime criminal defense attorney Barry Spevack to help Cohen navigate his cooperation in the investigations being conducted by Mueller, the New York Attorney General’s Office and the congressional committees seeking his testimony.
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“We look forward to helping Mr. Cohen fulfill what he has told us is his only mission –to tell the truth as he knows it and to turn the corner on his past life and taking ownership for his past mistakes by cooperating as best he can with all governmental authorities in search of the truth,” Monico and Spevack said in a joint statement last month.
Fox News' Andrew O'Reilly and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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