GOP Reps Call for Cohen to Be Investigated for Lying to Congress

(AP)

Reps. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y. and Mike Turner, R-Ohio, are demanding Attorney General Merrick Garland investigate Michael Cohen for perjury.

Cohen was former President Donald Trump’s attorney and “fixer,” and is set to testify against him in his criminal trial in Manhattan.

Trump is charged with falsifying business records on a $130,000 payment to Cohen to reimburse him for paying adult film actress Stormy Daniels to stop saying she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. Trump has denied all charges and said the encounter never occurred.

In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations and tax evasion related to the payment and served time in prison. He was also disbarred.

Cohen testified under cross-examination last October that he lied under oath before the House Intelligence Committee in 2019 when asked in a deposition about Trump’s personal financial statements.

In his testimony, Cohen told a House panel that Trump did not direct him to inflate financial statements for Trump Organization assets. He testified in Trump’s New York civil fraud trial last month that he lied under oath in 2019, claiming that Trump “speaks like a mob boss” and gives directions “without specifically telling you “what to do.”

Stefanik and Turner said it is unacceptable the Justice Department has not launched a criminal referral against Cohen.

“Perjury and false statements before Congress are crimes that undermine the integrity of the constitutional duty to conduct oversight and inquiries,” Stefanik and Turner said. “Yet, despite an admission from Mr. Cohen that he lied under oath to Congress, the Biden Justice Department did nothing.”

Stefanik and Turner noted the Justice Department prosecuted Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, both former Trump advisers

“The double standard is glaring,” Stefanik and Turner said. “You are trying to protect the reputation of an admitted perjurer, one who just so happens to be set to testify against former President Trump in New York.”

The two representatives had sent Garland a criminal referral demanding an investigation of Cohen last November but did not receive a response.

“That Mr. Cohen was willing to openly and brazenly state at trial that he lied to Congress on this specific issue is startling,” the two wrote in their criminal referral. “His willingness to make such a statement alone should necessitate an investigation.”