Democrats are calling the latest bombshell allegation against President Trump — that he ordered his personal attorney to lie to Congress — the most damning…
Democrats are calling the latest bombshell allegation against President Trump — that he ordered his personal attorney to lie to Congress — the most damning yet, with several raising the possibility of impeachment, or even resignation, less than a month into the new Congress.
Rep. David Cicilline (R. I.), the head of House Democrats’ messaging arm, said on CNN on Friday that the allegations laid out in a Thursday BuzzFeed report, if true, are “the most serious threat to the Trump presidency that we’ve seen so far,” as well as an “impeachable offense.”
At least one House Judiciary Committee member, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a top progressive leader, said the report suggests Trump obstructed justice. “That’s a federal crime,” she said.
And Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), a member of the Intelligence Committee and twin brother of presidential hopeful Julián Castro, said Trump “must resign or be impeached” if the story is accurate.
The explosive allegations as reported by BuzzFeed — that Trump personally directed Cohen to lie to Congress about the timing of negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow — ramp up the stakes for a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing featuring Cohen slated for next month.
Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, notably did not try to undermine the BuzzFeed story during a Friday appearance on MSNBC’s “Meet the Press Daily.”
“You have in the past denied others or corrected the record when something has been wrong,” host Chuck Todd pointed out.
“[Cohen] had nothing to do with the writing of the story. He didn’t initiate the story. It was done by independent reporting. So the story stands on its own,” Davis said, while neither explicitly confirming nor denying the story.
Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani denied the allegations on Friday, saying in a statement that “Any suggestion — from any source — that the President counseled Michael Cohen to lie is categorically false.”
Trump said on Twitter on Friday that his former self-described “fixer” was “lying to reduce his jail time.” Cohen was convicted last year of charges including bank fraud and campaign finance violations — actions he also said he took at Trump’s behest.
Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, also said Friday that he expects Cohen to return for another closed-door appearance in early February.
