WASHINGTON\u2014He carried out the boss\u2019 wishes. He understood \u201cthe code.\u201d He was blindly loyal\u2014but now he\u2019s considered a rat. Donald Trump\u2019s former lawyer Michael\u2026<\/b>
\nWASHINGTON\u2014He carried out the boss\u2019 wishes. He understood \u201cthe code.\u201d He was blindly loyal\u2014but now he\u2019s considered a rat.
Donald Trump\u2019s former lawyer Michael Cohen spoke at length on Wednesday about his life in the president\u2019s inner circle, but the most vivid descriptor came in just six words. Trump ran his operation \u201cmuch like a mobster would do,\u201d Cohen said.
In Cohen\u2019s scathing testimony at a House committee hearing, he repeatedly described Trump, the onetime head of a family business, like a mob boss minus the body count: quick to bully and expecting others to do his dirty work.
Consigliere
Cohen described himself as a consigliere, telling lawmakers he did Trump\u2019s bidding for years, intimidating maybe 500 people and lying to scores, including the first lady.
But Trump never directly told him to do it, he said.
\u201cHe doesn\u2019t give you questions, he doesn\u2019t give you orders,\u201d Cohen said. \u201cHe speaks in a code, and I understand the code because I\u2019ve been around him for a decade.\u201d
In testimony that cut to the heart of federal investigations encircling the White House, Cohen said he arranged a hush money payment to a porn actress at the president\u2019s behest and agreed to lie about it to the public and the first lady.
He said he had lied by claiming that Trump was \u201cnot knowledgeable\u201d about the transaction even though the president had directly arranged for his reimbursement.
And he said he was left with the unmistakable impression that Trump wanted him to lie to Congress about a Moscow real estate project, though the president never directly told him so.
Lied to Congress
Cohen is facing a three-year sentence for lying to Congress in 2017 and other charges.
He came back to Capitol Hill this week, worrying for his family\u2019s safety, but claiming he would no longer lie for his former boss and was ready to spill.
\u201cI\u2019m not protecting Mr. Trump anymore,\u201d Cohen declared.
\u201cMy loyalty to Mr. Trump has cost me everything: my family\u2019s happiness, friendships, my law license, my company, my livelihood, my honor, my reputation and, soon, my freedom,\u201d Cohen said. I will not sit back, say nothing and allow him to do the same to the country.\u201d
Trump has denied the allegations against him and called Cohen a liar. Even as he\u2019s done so, he\u2019s used mobspeak.
\u201cRemember, Michael Cohen only became a \u2018Rat\u2019 after the FBI did something which was absolutely unthinkable & unheard of until the Witch Hunt was illegally started,\u201d Trump tweeted in December. \u201cThey BROKE INTO AN ATTORNEY\u2019S OFFICE,\u201d he wrote, referring to the raid on Cohen\u2019s office that touched off the now-disbarred lawyer\u2019s eventual guilty plea.
\u2018Con man\u2019
In his testimony, Cohen called Trump a \u201ccon man\u201d who knew in advance about the release of stolen e-mails aimed at hurting his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election campaign.
But he also said he had no \u201cdirect evidence\u201d that Trump or his aides colluded with Russia to get him elected, the primary question of special counsel Robert Mueller\u2019s investigation.
Speaking in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Thursday, Trump called Cohen\u2019s testimony \u201cshameful.\u201d
He said Cohen had lied \u201ca lot\u201d in his congressional testimony, but told the truth when he said there had been no collusion with Russia.
During the hearing, Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly even likened Cohen to Joe Valachi, an American gangster known as the \u201cfirst rat\u201d whose 1960s testimony before Congress led to the eventual dismantling of organized crime.
\u201cThis Congress historically has relied on all kinds of shady figures who turned,\u201d Connolly said.
Mob operation
It\u2019s hardly the first time Trump\u2019s orbit has drawn mob comparisons.
In his book \u201cA Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership,\u201d former FBI Director James Comey said he got the sinking feeling that Trump\u2019s operation functioned like the mob.
Former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe spun a similar story, and a former agent and former federal prosecutor tweeted on Wednesday that Trump\u2019s tactics as detailed by Cohen sure felt a lot like the mafia.
There\u2019s even a \u201cGodfather: Part II\u201d reference in the indictment by the special prosecutor investigating Trump\u2019s possible ties to Russia.
Trump confidant Roger Stone told an associate to pull a \u201cFrank Pentangeli\u201d before a House committee, the indictment says.
In the film, Pentangeli, an associate of mob boss Vito Corleone, lies to protect the family during congressional testimony. \u2014REPORTS FROM AP<\/p>\n