Trump’s former personal lawyer is an unwieldy witness in the middle of an unwieldy situation.
The House Intelligence Committee late Monday released two days of sealed testimony given by President Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen. Given Cohen has testified publicly since these two appearances, much of the material isn’t new.
But there are some key takeaways — including a big, new allegation that Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow provided him with a false timeline about the Trump Tower Moscow project to give to Congress.
Below are some takeaways.
We knew ahead of the release of the transcripts that Cohen had indicated that Sekulow gave him the false timeline which he testified to and later admitted to lying about. What we didn’t know was whether Sekulow knew the timeline was false. That would be necessary to prove Sekulow suborned perjury.
Cohen says Sekulow did know, but he doesn’t really substantiate how he knows that:
Cohen also suggests that Sekulow’s denials about his role in drafting the statement were misleading:
Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, went on TV Monday night and said “everybody” knew that timeline was a lie. But again, it’s not clear how he and Cohen know that.
