Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former consigliere, will not testify before the House Oversight Committee on Feb. 7 as scheduled. Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis, claims he postponed Cohen’s appearance “indefinitely”, citing threats from President Trump and Trump’s current consigliere Rudy Giuliani.
Davis said in a statement released Wednesday, “due to ongoing threats against his family from President Trump and Mr. Giuliani, as recently as this weekend, as well as Mr. Cohen’s continued cooperation with ongoing investigations, by advice of counsel, Mr. Cohen’s appearance will be postponed to a later date.”
Giuliani is the former mayor of New York City.
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The Senate Intelligence Committee didn’t take too kindly to Cohen weaseling out of his planned appearance. The Committee subpoenaed Cohen to testify anyway in mid-February before he turns himself in to begin serving a 3 year prison sentence for multiple tax and campaign finance violations.
Cohen appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2017. He later plead guilty to lying about Trump’s discussions with the Russians to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.
Trump and Giuliani have branded Cohen a pathological liar, saying he is a convicted felon who is “completely untrustworthy.”
“If one thing has been established, it’s that Michael Cohen is completely untrustworthy,” Giuliani told the Wall Street Journal.
Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, a Republican from Maryland, is “confident” he can compel Cohen to appear before his committee behind closed doors before he reports to prison.
Cohen’s scheduled appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee in February would have been open to the public.
Cohen is scheduled to report to prison in March.
Photo by Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images
