(TargetLiberty.org) – Two House Intelligence Committee Republicans have recommended that the Department of Justice consider pursuing charges against Michael Cohen, the former attorney and fixer of Donald Trump, for providing contradictory testimony during the New York civil fraud trial against former President Trump last month.
The letter was sent by House Intelligence Chair Mike Turner (R-Ohio) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), who is a member of the committee. In it, they accuse Cohen of perjury for having made a false statement knowingly during his testimony before the congressional panel four years earlier. The referral letter noted that Cohen was willing to openly say during a civil trial that he had “lied to Congress” regarding this specific topic. They further note that his willingness to make such a statement in the open is reason enough for an investigation to be launched.
The criminal referral letter might be calling for prosecutors to take action, but it does not have any legal weight and is in fact a symbolic move. Jeffrey K. Levine, Cohen’s lawyer, has dismissed the letter stating that it had no merit and did not provide context. He added that the two members had hand-selected the answer from the “2019 Intelligence Committee deposition transcript.”
Late last month during cross-examination Trump’s legal team got Cohen to testify that during the House Intelligence Committee testimony in 2019, he had lied under oath. During that deposition, Cohen had stated that Trump had never told him to inflate the numbers in the financial condition statements.
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