Michael Cohen Testimony: Allegations That Trump Directed False Statements to Congress and Signed Reimbursement Checks in Office
Tier 2Documented2017-01-20 to 2019-03-06
Factual Summary
Michael Cohen, who served as Donald Trump's personal attorney for over a decade, provided testimony to Congress and to the Special Counsel's office alleging that Trump was directly involved in efforts to obstruct investigations and conceal information from lawmakers.
On February 27, 2019, Cohen testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform in a nationally televised hearing. Cohen stated that Trump had engaged in a pattern of using coded language to direct his associates' conduct without issuing explicit orders. On the question of whether Trump told him to lie to Congress about the Trump Organization's pursuit of a real estate project in Moscow, Cohen testified: "Mr. Trump did not directly tell me to lie to Congress. That's not how he operates." Cohen explained: "In conversations we had during the campaign, at the same time I was actively negotiating in Russia for him, he would look me in the eye and tell me there's no business in Russia and then go out and lie to the American people by saying the same thing. In his way, he was telling me to lie."
Cohen had previously pleaded guilty in November 2018 to making false statements to Congress about the Moscow Tower project timeline. In his guilty plea, Cohen admitted that he had told congressional committees that negotiations on the Moscow project ended in January 2016, when in fact discussions continued through at least June 2016, well into the presidential campaign. Cohen stated that he made the false statements to be consistent with Trump's public messaging and to support Trump's political interests.
During his House testimony, Cohen stated that Trump's personal attorneys, including Jay Sekulow, had reviewed and edited Cohen's prepared statement to Congress before he delivered it. Cohen testified that changes were made to the statement to minimize the duration and significance of the Moscow project negotiations. Cohen subsequently provided documents to the House Intelligence Committee that he said showed the editing process.
Cohen also presented physical evidence during his testimony, including copies of checks signed by Trump while serving as president. The checks, dated in 2017, represented reimbursement payments to Cohen for the $130,000 payment Cohen made to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. Cohen testified that Trump signed the checks personally and knew that the payments were structured as reimbursement for the hush money arrangement. These checks later became central evidence in the Manhattan District Attorney's criminal prosecution of Trump, documented in CRIM-001.
The Special Counsel's report, released in April 2019, addressed the question of whether Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress. The report stated that while Trump "made repeated efforts" to keep the Moscow project from becoming a political issue and that Trump's public statements minimizing the project were "not true," the evidence "does not establish" that Trump explicitly directed Cohen to provide false testimony.
Cohen was sentenced in December 2018 to three years in federal prison for tax fraud, bank fraud, campaign finance violations, and making false statements to Congress.
Primary Sources
1. House Committee on Oversight and Reform, hearing transcript: "Hearing with Michael Cohen, Former Attorney to President Donald Trump," February 27, 2019: https://www.congress.gov/116/chrg/CHRG-116hhrg35230/CHRG-116hhrg35230.pdf
2. Cohen guilty plea, U.S. v. Cohen, S.D.N.Y., November 29, 2018, count of making false statements to Congress
3. Mueller Report, Volume II, sections addressing Trump-Cohen communications about Moscow Tower project
4. Copies of reimbursement checks signed by Trump, presented as exhibits during Cohen's congressional testimony
Corroborating Sources
1. Time: "Michael Cohen's Testimony Was Full of Explosive Claims," February 27, 2019
2. CNN: "The 29 most consequential lines from Michael Cohen's congressional testimony," February 2019
3. CNBC: "Trump's ex-lawyer Michael Cohen gives House Intelligence Committee documents revealing alleged edits to false statement about Moscow project," March 6, 2019
4. BuzzFeed News: "Michael Cohen's Secret Testimony Detailed His Claim That Trump Told Him to Lie to Congress," November 2019
Counterarguments and Context
Trump denied all of Cohen's allegations and called Cohen a liar seeking a reduced prison sentence. Trump's attorneys argued that Cohen had a strong personal motive to implicate Trump because cooperation with prosecutors could result in leniency. Republicans on the Oversight Committee questioned Cohen's credibility extensively, noting his guilty plea for making false statements and asking why Congress should trust a convicted liar. Jay Sekulow denied that he or other Trump attorneys had made substantive changes to Cohen's congressional statement and characterized Cohen's account of the editing process as misleading. The Mueller Report's finding that the evidence did not establish that Trump explicitly directed Cohen to lie was cited by Trump's defenders as exoneration on the question of suborning perjury. Cohen's defenders countered that the Mueller Report's language was carefully hedged and that the broader pattern of Trump's public statements minimizing the Moscow project created the framework within which Cohen understood he was expected to operate.
Author's Note
This entry is classified as Tier 2 because the underlying conduct involved formal criminal proceedings against Cohen, including a guilty plea for making false statements to Congress, and a formal investigation by the Special Counsel that examined Trump's role. The Mueller Report addressed but did not resolve the question of whether Trump directed the false statements. Cohen's congressional testimony is a matter of public record, and the reimbursement checks were entered as evidence in subsequent criminal proceedings. The entry documents the testimony and the evidentiary record without resolving the disputed question of Trump's intent.