Top Dems raise obstruction, intimidation in blasting Trump comments on Cohen

A trio of top House Democrats on Sunday warned President Trump against “any action to obstruct” oversight efforts by Congress. 

The warning — issued in a statement by Reps. Elijah Cummings (Md.), Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.) and Adam Schiff (Calif.) — came after Trump on Saturday said his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, should “give information maybe on his father-in-law” during his upcoming congressional testimony.

Cummings, Nadler and Schiff said in the statement that the “integrity of our process to serve as an independent check on the Executive Branch must be respected by everyone,” including Trump.

{mosads}”Our nation’s laws prohibit efforts to discourage, intimidate, or otherwise pressure a witness not to provide testimony to Congress,” they said. 

“The President should make no statement or take any action to obstruct Congress’ independent oversight and investigative efforts, including by seeking to discourage any witness from testifying in response to a duly authorized request from Congress,” they added.

Cummings, Nadler and Schiff are the chairmen of the House Oversight and Reform, Judiciary and Intelligence committees, respectively.

Cummings announced last week that Cohen will voluntarily testify in February in front of the Oversight and Reform Committee.

Trump, during an interview with Fox News’s Jeanine Pirro, said Saturday that Cohen was planning to give information to Congress “to get his sentence reduced.”

“Well, there is no information. But he should give information maybe on his father-in-law, because that’s the one that people want to look at,” Trump said.

“Because where does that money — that’s the money in the family. And I guess he didn’t want to talk about his father-in-law — he’s trying to get his sentence reduced. So it’s pretty sad. It’s weak and it’s very sad to watch a thing like that. I couldn’t care less,” the president continued.