Tag: Adam Schiff

Michael Cohen raised a litany of allegations against his former boss, Donald Trump, in explosive testimony before Congress this week, implicating the president and his inner circle in potential criminal wrongdoing on multiple accounts. House Democrats seek interviews with Trump's children and close allies Read more Now House Democrats plan to use Cohen’s revelations as a blueprint to summon key witnesses and pursue investigative avenues they say their Republican counterparts have ignored. No one is off limits, including Trump’s adult children Donald Jr and Ivanka or the gatekeeper to his finances, the Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg. “If there were names that were mentioned, or records that were mentioned during the hearing, we want to take a look at all of that.” The issues raised by Cohen, who for nearly a decade worked as Trump’s personal attorney and fixer, were myriad and spanned several of the continuing investigations being overseen by special counsel Robert Mueller and federal prosecutors in the southern district of New York. In the aftermath of Cohen’s testimony, House Democrats zeroed in on at least three major lines of inquiry: negotiations over the construction of a Trump Tower in Moscow during the 2016 campaign; hush money payments to women and attempts by the president and his team to engage in an alleged coverup; and claims by Cohen that Trump knowingly engaged in insurance fraud. Michael Cohen: key takeaways from the former Trump lawyer's testimony Read more Cummings said the House oversight committee would seek interviews with both Donald Jr and Ivanka. “Cohen’s testimony opened the door to a plethora of questions.” In his testimony on Wednesday, Cohen submitted as evidence checks from Trump’s personal bank account that he said were reimbursements for the hush money. Cohen alleged on Wednesday that the then candidate Trump was aware of the meeting and told him Donald Jr would never have signed off on it without first seeking his approval. Among the key questions for investigators, Tribe said, would be whether there was “extrinsic evidence to corroborate or deny Cohen’s account of the conversation between Trump and Don Jr”. According to Cohen, Weisselberg presided over several hush money payments involving Trump – some of which are not publicly known.

Good Monday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today. _____________________ • Mike Pompeo will face his greatest test as secretary of state this week, when he accompanies President Trump to a summit meeting with North Korea’s leaders: He must keep Mr. Trump from giving away U.S. leverage on denuclearization while remaining in Mr. Trump’s good graces. • Vice President Mike Pence is commonly seen around Washington as a mute helpmate to a bombastic president. On foreign soil, he has toyed with the idea of branching out — just not too far. • Mr. Trump delayed his own deadline to increase tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports, citing “substantial progress” during a week of trade talks in Washington between American and Chinese officials. • Last week, home for the first district workweek of their term, moderate Democrats got to see firsthand how the voices of a small but vocal number of liberal lawmakers are reverberating in far more marginal districts. • Even before Democrats finish drafting bills to create a single-payer health care system, the health care and insurance industries have assembled a small army of lobbyists to kill “Medicare for all.” • Representative Adam B. Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said that House Democrats were prepared to go to court to force the release of the final report from the special counsel, Robert Mueller, if it were not made public. • Who is Konstantin Kilimnik, and what did he and Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman, discuss in 2016? Here’s the story behind the Russian operative pivotal to the special counsel investigation.

Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee talks with Rachel Maddow about what would motivate Paul Manafort to put his cooperation agreement at risk by continuing to lie to Mueller's investigators, suggesting that a pardon from Donald Trump…

CNN's Anderson Cooper looks into Democratic efforts to investigate President Donald Trump and his money just a day after the President called for bipartisanship at his second State of the Union address. #CNN #News

CNN's Erin Burnett takes a look at President Trump's reaction to Rep. Adam Schiff's (D-CA) vow to expand the Russia investigation to Trump's financial interests, something the president has said in the past is off limits. #CNN #News

President Trump mocked House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) after he announced a broad investigation into President Trump's finances. #CNN #News

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff announced Wednesday a broad investigation his committee would undertake "beyond Russia" into whether President Donald Trump's financial interests are driving his actions. #CNN #News

“BuzzFeed’s description of specific statements to the special counsel’s office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s congressional testimony are not accurate,” said the spokesman, Peter Carr. Both the White House and lawyers for Mr. Trump vigorously denied the BuzzFeed report even before the special counsel’s office weighed in. BuzzFeed News maintained that its report was accurate, its editor, Ben Smith, said after Mr. Mueller’s office disputed the account. One person familiar with Mr. Cohen’s testimony to the special counsel’s prosecutors said that Mr. Cohen did not state that the president had pressured him to lie to Congress. In a December court filing, prosecutors working for Mr. Mueller described how Mr. Cohen had repeatedly lied to Congress both about the length of negotiations over the Trump Tower Moscow deal and about Mr. Trump’s involvement in the project. They also said Mr. Cohen discussed the progress of the Moscow project with Mr. Trump more frequently than he had told the committee and had briefed members of Mr. Trump’s family about the negotiations. When he appeared in court to plead guilty to lying to Congress, Mr. Cohen said he had concealed his interactions with Russian officials and the fact that he asked Mr. Trump to travel to Russia to promote the deal because he wanted to support Mr. Trump’s “political messaging.” That day, Mr. Trump defended his role in the Trump Tower Moscow discussions, brushing aside concerns that he was advancing his business interests at the time he was hoping to become president. Mr. Cohen initially repeated his false statements about the Moscow tower to prosecutors working for Mr. Mueller after he pleaded guilty in August to campaign finance violations and financial crimes. Mr. Cohen said he initially lied because he did not want to contradict his congressional testimony, prosecutors said. Subsequently, he took care “not to overstate his knowledge or the role of others in the conduct under investigation” and provided “useful information” about his contacts with “persons connected to the White House” in 2017 and 2018, the special counsel’s filing said.

The House speaker's office has accused the State Department of leaking delegation travel plans to fly to Afghanistan commercially after the president denied a military plane; Peter Doocy reports from Capitol Hill. #AmericasNewsroom #FoxNews FOX News Channel (FNC) is a…

Did President Trump make the right call canceling Nancy Pelosi's trip until a deal is reached to end the shutdown? Radio talk show host Larry Elder weighs in on 'Hannity.' #Hannity #FoxNews FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing…