In their questioning of Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, members of the House Oversight and Reform Committee made incorrect or misleading statements.
What Was Said
— Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio
This carefully worded statement is true, but could give a misleading impression. There is little precedent for someone convicted of the specific crime of lying to Congress to again appear before Congress shortly afterward. But people who were found to have lied to Congress have returned before the body to testify, and lawmakers occasionally hear from convicted criminals.
Very few people — six from the 1940s to the 2000s, according to one estimate — have been convicted of lying to Congress. Others were indicted but acquitted (for example, Roger Clemens, the baseball pitcher) or received presidential pardons (like officials in the Reagan administration involved in the Iran-contra affair).
Among this small group, at least two have testified to Congress after being charged. Elliott Abrams, the former assistant secretary of state under President Ronald Reagan and current envoy to Venezuela under President Trump, pleaded guilty in 1991 to withholding information from Congress, but testified to Congress this month.
