Republican Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) says Michael Cohen’s testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Committee amounted to a “nothing burger” after roughly seven hours of public testimony.
“The whole thing yesterday was basically a nothing burger,” Hice, who grilled Cohen at Wednesday’s hearing, told Hill.TV’s Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton Thursday on “Rising.”
“There was nothing new that came to the table, and we were anticipating — we were told at the last minute that there were going to be some significant issues, and I just don’t think that happened at all,” he continued.
Cohen has been sentenced to three years in prison for crimes including tax evasion and lying to Congress.
He delivered dramatic testimony before the Oversight Committee on Thursday, referring to the president as a “racist” and a “con man.”
Among other claims, Cohen alleged that Trump was aware that WikiLeaks had planned to release troves of emails in 2016 meant to damage Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. WikiLeaks and former longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone have denied those claims.
Cohen also said he had not seen any evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Other Republicans had the same reaction as Hice, pointing to Cohen’s record of lying to Congress and questioning why House Democrats were ready to believe his claims this time.
“I think, really, the highlight from yesterday is more of the reality that he can’t be trusted,” Hice said. “So you don’t know what he’s telling is the truth, what’s not the truth. There was just nothing to rest upon. He has a pattern of deception and of lying, and even yesterday, there were examples of him being inconsistent with his own story.”
Trump publicly reacted to the testimony on Wednesday from Vietnam, calling his former lawyer a “fraud” who was lying to reduce his prison time.
Michael Cohen was one of many lawyers who represented me (unfortunately). He had other clients also. He was just disbarred by the State Supreme Court for lying & fraud. He did bad things unrelated to Trump. He is lying in order to reduce his prison time. Using Crooked’s lawyer!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 27, 2019
Trump added that Cohen did tell the truth when he said he saw no collusion.
— Julia Manchester
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