Trump labelled a 'racist' and 'conman' by Cohen

Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen accused the President in explosive public testimony before Congress of knowing in advance about key events under investigation in the Russia inquiry and of committing criminal conspiracy in the cover-up of an extramarital affair. In what a report in The Guardian describes as a day of high drama before the House oversight committee, Cohen delivered a string of bombshells that could spawn fresh investigations by Congress and the FBI. He labelled the US President a ‘racist’ and ‘conman’, produced signed cheques that he said were proof of a fraudulently disguised conspiracy to silence a former adult film actor, and gave what he claimed were eyewitness accounts that implied Trump had prior knowledge of crucial Russia links. Cohen became the first in the President’s inner circle to allege that Trump knew that his longtime adviser, Roger Stone, was communicating with WikiLeaks during the 2016 election regarding the release of hacked Democratic Party e-mails. He also said Trump was aware of the infamous Trump Tower meeting between members of his presidential campaign, including his son Donald Trump Jnr, and a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin, which was arranged in order to receive damaging information about Hillary Clinton. The report says Cohen’s testimony marked a rare opportunity for millions of Americans to bear witness to the account of a central player in multiple investigations ensnaring the President and associates. Cohen acted for more than a decade as the President’s fixer – a role in which he became intimately familiar with both Trump’s personal and professional affairs.

In an extraordinary and emotional closing statement, Cohen spoke directly to his former boss, admonishing Trump for a litany of sins ranging from his attacks against the media to his policy of separating immigrant families and his failure to ‘take responsibility for your own dirty deeds’. According to The Guardian report, he exhorted those who still support the President, as he once did, not to make ‘the same mistakes I have made or pay the heavy price that my family and I are paying’. In his most lurid warning, Cohen suggested that America could be facing existential peril as a constitutional democracy. ‘Given my experience working for Mr Trump, I fear that if he loses the election in 2020 that there will never be a peaceful transition of power. Cohen’s testimony, stretching, with breaks, over more than seven hours, highlighted how the US President faces legal and political peril on at least two fronts – the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US election and possible ties between the Trump campaign and Moscow, as well as a criminal conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws through the payment of hush money.

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