The leading Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, says testimony provided by Ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen ‘confirms that the president and his business are compromised.’
The California congressman was speaking on ABC’s ‘This Week’ on Sunday.
Schiff said Cohen was now a witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
The leading Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, said Ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen was now a witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation
‘There is now testimony, there is now a witness, who confirms that in the same way Michael Flynn was compromised, that the president and his business are compromised,’ Schiff said.
Cohen pleaded guilty Thursday to lying to Congress, a charge that his lawyers said resulted in part from information he voluntarily provided Mueller’s team in meetings governed by a limited-use immunity agreement.
He also admitted to making misstatements regarding the Trump organization’s efforts to develop a branded property in Moscow to congressional committees investigating Russian influence on the 2016 election, including the House Intelligence Committee, according to court documents.
Schiff, says testimony provided by Cohen (pictured above) ‘confirms that the president and his business are compromised’
Schiff is set to chair the intelligence committee when Democrats take control of the House next year.
‘[W]hat the president was saying, what Michael Cohen was saying and others were saying about when this business deal ended was not true. And what’s more, the Russians knew it wasn’t true,’ said Schiff of the proposed Moscow project.
‘It means that the president, whether he won or lost, was hoping to make money from Russia, was seeking at the same time to enlist the support of the Kremlin to make that money,’ Schiff added.
Schiff added that the testimony of former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone should also be provided to special counsel Robert Mueller ‘for consideration of whether perjury charges are warranted.’
Schiff, who will head up the House Intelligence Committee, accuses Cohen and President Trump of not speaking the truth about when a business deal ended with Russia
Schiff suggested that others may also potentially be in legal jeopardy for providing false testimony to the congressional committee. There’s generally a high legal threshold to prove such a charge, but he said ‘there are some people that I’m confident have met and exceeded that bar.’
Mueller’s investigators are trying to determine whether Jerome Corsi and Stone had advance knowledge of WikiLeaks’ plans to release hacked material damaging to Hillary Clinton’s presidential effort.
U.S. intelligence agencies have said Russia was the source of that hacked material.
Documents drafted by Mueller’s team as part of a potential plea deal with Corsi — which he has rejected — contained portions of emails he exchanged with Stone in the summer of 2016 about WikiLeaks.
‘It means that the president, whether he won or lost, was hoping to make money from Russia,’ Schiff said
In late July 2016, Stone emailed Corsi, asking him to get in touch with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been living in Ecuador’s embassy in London since 2012, according to the documents. Stone said he wanted Corsi to try to obtain emails the group possessed about Clinton.
Both Stone and Corsi have denied any wrongdoing, and Stone has denied knowing Assange or being a conduit for WikiLeaks. He told The Associated Press last month that he had ‘no advanced notice of the source or content or the exact timing of the release of the WikiLeaks disclosures.’
Corsi has said the email he sent Stone in reply — which accurately forecast that WikiLeaks would release derogatory information about Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta in October — was based on his own deduction and not the result of any inside information or a source close to the group.
Prosecutors from Mueller’s office had offered Corsi a deal to plead guilty to a false statements charge, but he said he rejected the offer because he didn’t knowingly mislead investigators. He now says he expects he will be indicted.
Schiff added that former Trump campaign adviser, Roger Stone, could also ‘be in legal jeopardy’