Michael Cohen regrets lying to Melania Trump about alleged Stormy Daniels affair: 'She is a kind, good person'
The testimony former Trump attorney and fixer Michael Cohen gave before members of the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday has included some damning allegations. Amid his claims that Donald Trump is a “racist” who had prior knowledge about hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee, Cohen testified that his former client instructed him to pay adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about their alleged 2006 affair. Cohen added that Trump also told him to “lie” to Melania Trump about the Daniels situation, which he now calls “one of my biggest regrets.”
“He asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair, and to lie to his wife about it, which I did,” Cohen, who is cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller, said. “Lying to the first lady is one of my biggest regrets. She is a kind, good person. I respect her greatly — and she did not deserve that.”
Cohen says he feels bad about lying to @FLOTUS about President Trump's alleged affairs and hush-money payments.
"Lying to the first lady is one of my biggest regrets because she is a kind, good person and I respect her greatly. She did not deserve that." https://t.co/NtBbY5Rt1U pic.twitter.com/p3Wjf15Gr6
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) February 27, 2019
Cohen also confirmed that, as Daniels has maintained, he gave her “illegal hush money” on behalf of his client. He furnished checks made out to him by Trump, which he claims were reimbursement for the money Cohen gave Daniels (aka Stephanie Clifford).
“Donald Trump wrote you a check out of his personal account while he was serving as president of the United States of America to reimburse you for hush money payments to Ms. Clifford. Is that what you are telling the American people today?” House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings asked, to which Cohen responded, “Yes, Mr. Chairman.”
According to CNN White House correspondent Kate Bennett, Cohen has tried to apologize to the first lady in person. Bennett also reported that her office will not address Cohen’s testimony.
FWIW, @FLOTUS office will not return request for comment on Cohen's statement about this testimony and his actions involving Melania Trump. Cohen reportedly attempted to apologize to Melania at a Mar-a-Lago event in 2018 for his actions involving paying off Stormy Daniels.
— Kate Bennett (@KateBennett_DC) February 27, 2019
Twitter, meanwhile, is having a field day.
Oy, @FLOTUS.
Hope you’re not watching.— andy lassner (@andylassner) February 27, 2019
Melania right now (If not complicit).#MichaelCohenTestimony #MichaelCohen #CohenTestimoney #CohenCongressionalTestimony pic.twitter.com/IrcoNv8Kvp
— Sean (@ItsSeansTweets) February 27, 2019
Melania Trump secretly listening to Michael Cohen's testimony right now pic.twitter.com/rieqsWMeJs
— Spencer Althouse (@SpencerAlthouse) February 27, 2019
Trump, who is currently in Vietnam, sent a pre-emptive tweet on Wednesday morning to accuse Cohen of “lying in order to reduce his prison time.”
Michael Cohen was one of many lawyers who represented me (unfortunately). He had other clients also. He was just disbarred by the State Supreme Court for lying & fraud. He did bad things unrelated to Trump. He is lying in order to reduce his prison time. Using Crooked’s lawyer!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 27, 2019
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