House Intel obtains new info, documents from Cohen in 8-hour interview

Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen was grilled by congressional investigators for eight hours Wednesday as part of the House Intelligence Committee’s sweeping probe of the president’s finances and links to Russia.

In his second day over the past two weeks providing closed-door testimony, Cohen offered lawmakers new documents, including some that reportedly showed his prior false statements about a proposal to build a Trump property in Moscow were edited before he delivered them to Congress.

Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) described the interview as “enormously productive” in brief remarks Wednesday evening, but declined to offer specifics about what Cohen told lawmakers or the documentation he provided.

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“He answered every question that was put to him by members of both parties. He was fully cooperative with the committee,” Schiff said. “We had requested documents of Mr. Cohen. He has provided additional documents to the committee.”

Schiff noted there “may be additional documents that he still has to offer, and his cooperation with our committee continues.”

Cohen, flanked by his attorney and spokesman Lanny Davis, emerged from the secure committee room around 5:30 p.m. carrying the same suitcase and thick folder he entered with, telling reporters that he believed the questioning went “very, very well.”

He did not answer shouted questions from reporters about whether he would be making another appearance before lawmakers in the coming weeks, but said he was prepared to cooperate with any further requests made to his lawyers to “the fullest extent of my abilities.”

Wednesday’s appearance marked Cohen’s fourth day of testimony on Capitol Hill over the past two weeks.

“Mr. Cohen has now spent 16 hours with the [House Intelligence Committee] answering many questions from both Republicans and Democrats,” Davis said in a statement Wednesday evening. “Mr. Cohen responded to all questions truthfully and has agreed at the request of chairman Schiff to provide additional information in the future, if needed. He also offered to answer additional questions from Republican members. He remains committed to telling the truth and cooperating with authorities.”

Cohen, who is due to start a three-year prison sentence in May for crimes he pleaded guilty to last year, has been a key person of interest in burgeoning congressional investigations into Trump by the Democrat-controlled House.

He testified publicly last week before the House Oversight and Reform Committee and implicated his former boss in a host of nefarious and criminal activity. In particular, Cohen detailed Trump’s alleged involvement in a scheme to pay off women who alleged they had affairs with him before the 2016 election.

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At the same time, Cohen has been subject to escalating attacks on his credibility from President Trump and his Republican allies.

Wednesday’s appearance was expected to focus substantially on the Trump Moscow discussions. Cohen pleaded guilty in November to lying to Congress in 2017 about the duration of discussions about that project as part of a deal to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller, admitting they extended as late as June 2016 — six months longer than he initially testified.

Lawmakers offered few details about Cohen’s testimony or the documentation he provided as they came and went from the security facility on Wednesday.

But the details won’t remain unknown for long; the committee said it plans to release a transcript of Cohen’s closed-door testimony in the near future.

Many panel members declined to comment on a CNN report that Cohen came equipped with documents showing edits to the false testimony he delivered to Congress in 2017. In his public testimony last week, Cohen suggested changes were made to his testimony regarding the duration of the Trump Moscow discussions after Trump’s personal lawyers reviewed the testimony.

Trump attorney Jay Sekulow subsequently rebutted Cohen’s assertion, saying the claim that the president’s lawyers edited or changed Cohen’s statement about the length of the Moscow property talks is “completely false.”

Lawmakers from both parties acknowledged Wednesday that they gleaned new information from Cohen’s hours-long testimony, but Republicans downplayed the significance of what they heard.

“There are some peripheral things that have come up,” said Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) during a break Wednesday afternoon as lawmakers left the hearing briefly to vote. “Nothing dramatic.”

Republicans also cast doubt on Cohen’s credibility — a common theme since the onetime Trump confidant began his closely watched Capitol Hill tour last week.

“He continues to be the Michael Cohen that we all know and love,” quipped Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas). When asked if Cohen appeared credible, he answered, “No.”

Democrats on the committee, however, disagreed, a further sign of partisan divisions that have plagued the panel since its first investigation into Russian interference was shuttered by Republicans last spring.

“I can say this, that now having heard him in three days of testimony, I get more confident about the credibility of his testimony each time because it is consistent, it is specific, and his demeanor is credible,” said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), who sits on both the Intelligence and Oversight panels.

Over the course of Cohen’s two days of private interviews, lawmakers were also expected to drill down on other revelations from Cohen’s public testimony, including his assertion that Trump knew of longtime friend Roger Stone’s contacts with WikiLeaks about the group’s plans to leak hacked Democratic emails before the 2016 election and his description of the extent to which the Trump Moscow real estate deal was discussed within the Trump Organization.

While the property plans never came to fruition, they have drawn scrutiny from congressional investigators and Mueller because the discussions took place during the heat of the 2016 presidential campaign.

Cohen also testified publicly that he had no direct knowledge of the president or his campaign colluding with Russia, but suspected that Trump knew in advance of the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between members of his campaign and a Kremlin-connected lawyer.

Trump has lashed out at his former attorney and “fixer,” calling him a liar in pursuit of a lighter prison sentence, and accused Democrats of “presidential harassment” in their investigations.

Cohen’s closed-door interview with the House Intelligence Committee has become an early flashpoint in the panel’s sweeping investigation into the president’s ties to Russia and other foreign governments, which includes examining whether Trump has been subject to “financial compromise.”

Schiff has scheduled a public hearing with former Trump business associate Felix Sater, a Russian-American real estate developer who was involved in the efforts to bring a Trump Tower to Moscow, for March 14.

Schiff has also staffed up the committee in preparation for its work, announcing Tuesday that the panel has hired Daniel Goldman, a veteran federal prosecutor from Manhattan with experience in prosecuting Russian organized crime, to lead its investigation.

“We will fill you in on further witnesses and testimony that we anticipate,” Schiff said Wednesday. “We appreciate very much his cooperation,” he added, referring to Cohen.

Olivia Beavers and Jacqueline Thomsen contributed.