Cohen docs undercut claims Trump lawyers altered timeline of Moscow tower talks
Records provided by President Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen on his false 2017 congressional testimony undercut allegations that Trump attorneys made critical edits to alter the timeline of the Trump Tower negotiations in Moscow; Catherine Herridge reports.
President Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen on Wednesday provided the House Intelligence Committee records showing that "the original date in the original draft" of Cohen's false congressional testimony on the conclusion of failed negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow was January 2016, a source familiar with the documents told Fox News -- undercutting allegations that Trump attorneys made critical edits to alter the negotiation's timeline.
Cohen acknowledged in a guilty plea last year that he misled lawmakers in 2017 by saying he had abandoned the project in January 2016, when in fact he pursued it for months afterwards as Trump campaigned for the presidency.
The documents provided by Cohen in a closed-door interview with the panel on Wednesday are not public, but two sources confirmed to Fox News that they included edits from the president’s legal team. It's unclear who exactly edited the documents or what exactly was changed.
Neither Cohen nor House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., responded when asked by Fox News after the hearing about the January 2016 date that Cohen provided in his original draft.
In a statement Wednesday evening, Schiff wrote that "while we will not discuss the substance of his testimony at this time, Mr. Cohen cooperated fully with the Committee, answered every question we asked of him during both interview sessions, and provided important testimony and materials relevant to the core of our probe and that will allow us to advance our investigation substantially."
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Another source familiar with the records and close to Cohen said, "He wrote the first version. He lied because he was given clear message to stay on message. There were many versions of the original document he wrote circulated among the lawyers in the joint defense agreement. There were edits proposed by certain lawyers. Some were accepted and some were rejected. The final version is what was the issue in August 2017.”
In public testimony last week, Cohen told the House Oversight Committee that Trump's attorneys, including Jay Sekulow, had reviewed and edited the statement he provided to Congress.
Sekulow has denied wrongdoing, saying in a statement after the hearing that the "testimony by Michael Cohen that attorneys for the President edited or changed his statement to Congress to alter the duration of the Trump Tower Moscow negotiations is completely false."
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After the hearing, Cohen attorney Lanny Davis -- who also refused to take questions from reporters -- issued a statement saying Cohen has been cooperating.
“Mr. Cohen has now spent 16 hours with the (intelligence committee) answering many questions from both Republicans and Democrats," Davis said. "Mr. Cohen responded to all questions truthfully and has agreed at the request of chairman Schiff to provide additional information in the future, if needed. He also offered to answer additional questions from Republican members. He remains committed to telling the truth and cooperating with authorities."
The disclosures come in Cohen's fourth day of testimony on Capitol Hill as he prepares for a three-year prison sentence for lying to Congress and other charges.
Cohen has become a key figure in congressional investigations after turning on his former boss and cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller's probe. During last week's public testimony before the Oversight panel, he called Trump a "con man," a "cheat" and a "racist." He also was interviewed privately by both the Senate and House intelligence committees last week and returned to the House intelligence panel behind closed doors on Wednesday.
Last Thursday, House Oversight Committee Republicans on Thursday referred Cohen to the Justice Department for alleged perjury, claiming he lied during sworn testimony before the panel that week about a number of issues, including his ambitions to work in the Trump administration.
Fox News' Alex Pappas and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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