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Michael Cohen: if Trump loses in 2020 'there will never be a peaceful transition of power' – as it happened

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President’s former lawyer testified Trump told him to say Trump had no knowledge of payments Cohen made to Daniels

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in Oakland (now) and and in New York (earlier)
Wed 27 Feb 2019 20.29 ESTFirst published on Wed 27 Feb 2019 08.27 EST
Key moments from Michael Cohen's explosive testimony – video

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What a day.

  • President Trump’s former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen finished up his testimony before the House Oversight Committee with a warning that if Trump loses in 2020, “there will never be a peaceful transition of power.”
  • He also chose to use his closing remarks to criticize the president on everything from immigration, family separation, the government shutdown, to his attacks on the media. “I pray the country doesn’t make the same mistakes that I have made or pay the heavy price that my family and I are paying,” he said.
  • Shortly before the hearing wrapped up, Representative Mark Meadows, a Republican, reacted with outrage when Representative Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat, criticized his decision to bring in a black woman as a prop to disprove racism as racist. “My nieces and nephews are people of color,” he exclaimed, but despite this, he still was a staunch proponent of the racist conspiracy theories surrounding Obama’s birthplace.

It’s been a hot second since Virginia has made its way onto this live blog, but the Washington Post is reporting today that first lady Pam Northam handed raw cotton to two African American schoolchildren during a tour of the historic governor’s residence and “asked them to imagine being enslaved and having to pick the crop.”

The incident came to light when one of the children’s mother, a state employee, complained. It comes not even a full month after Governor Ralph Northam ignited the whole Virginia firestorm after a college yearbook photo of a man in blackface next to a man in a Ku Klux Klan outfit on his personal page emerged, and he admitted to wearing blackface to impersonate Michael Jackson during a dance competition.

“The Governor and Mrs. Northam have asked the residents of the Commonwealth to forgive them for their racially insensitive past actions,” Leah Dozier Walker, who oversees the Office of Equity and Community Engagement at the state Education Department, wrote Feb. 25 to lawmakers and the office of Gov. Ralph Northam (D).

“But the actions of Mrs. Northam, just last week, do not lead me to believe that this Governor’s office has taken seriously the harm and hurt they have caused African Americans in Virginia or that they are deserving of our forgiveness,” she wrote.

The governor’s office told the Washington Post that Pam Northam “simply handed the cotton to whoever was nearby.” “I regret that I have upset anyone,” she said in a statement sent from the governor’s spokeswoman.

Cohen’s testimony was briefly interrupted when Republican Mark Meadows reacted with outrage over Representative Rashida Tlaib saying that bringing in a black woman as a prop to disprove racism struck her as racist. “My nieces and nephews are people of color,” he exclaimed.

After the hearing, several pointed out that whatever he believes his views on race to be, Meadows was a staunch proponent of the racist conspiracy theories surrounding Obama’s birthplace.

Here's Mark Meadows, who just sidetracked the entire House Oversight Committee to assure him he's not racist, saying that "2012 is the time we are going to send Mr. Obama home to Kenya or wherever it is" pic.twitter.com/90L1xnWf6v

— Steve Morris (@stevemorris__) February 27, 2019
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Cohen’s testimony could lead to the release of Trump’s tax returns.

Trump’s reasoning for not releasing his tax filings during the 2016 campaign was that he is being audited, but Cohen said he presumes that Trump is not. He said that Trump did not want to release his tax returns because he “didn’t want an entire group of think tanks, who are tax experts, to run through his returns.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez targets Trump finances at Cohen hearing – video
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In his closing remarks, Cohen admitted, “My loyalty to Mr Trump has cost me everything.”

He criticizes the president for a slew of his decisions and comments, on everything from family separations, the government shutdown, to Trump’s attacks on the media:

  • “We honor our veterans, even in the rain. You tell the truth, even when it doesn’t aggrandize you. You respect the law and our incredible law enforcement agents.”
  • “You don‘t attack the media and those who question what you don’t like or what you don’t want them to say. And you take responsibility for your own dirty deeds.”
  • “You don’t separate families from one another, or demonize those looking to America for a better life. You don’t vilify people based the god they pray to, and you don’t cuddle up to our adversaries.”
  • You don’t shut down the government before Christmas and New Year’s, just to appease your base.”

Cohen ended his closing remarks by saying, “I pray the country doesn’t make the same mistakes that I have made or pay the heavy price that my family and I are paying.”

Committee chairman, Elijah Cummings, is placing the Cohen hearing in the broader context of US politics.

“I know it’s painful going to prison,” Cummings said. “And I know it’s painful being called a rat.”

Cummings says he lived in the inner city of Baltimore and calling someone a rat “is one of the worst things you can do” because in prison, people who have been called rats are known as snitches.

“The president called you a rat,” Cummings said. “We’re better than that, we really are!”

Cummings says he doesn’t know if people believe Cohen, but he is showing some compassion, noting Cohen came in with his head down and this must be one of the hardest things he can do. Cummings says he was moved by images of Cohen and his daughter, which makes Cohen visibly emotional.

Cummings is fired up.

“We have to get back to normal! And with that, this meeting is adjourned.”

Cohen: if Trump loses in 2020 'there will never be a peaceful transition of power'

Michael Cohen makes closing remarks addressed to Donald Trump.

If Trump loses in 2020, “there will never be a peaceful transition of power,” says Cohen.

Rashida Tlaib, the Democrat from Michigan, criticizes Republicans for bringing in Lynne Patton, a black HUD employee, to stand at the hearing as a way of disproving allegations that Donald Trump is a racist.

Tlaib says as a woman of color, the act of bringing in a black woman as a prop to disprove racism struck her as racist.

Mark Meadows, the Republican who invited Patton to the hearing, is extremely emotional after Tlaib’s comment, prompting chairman Elijah Cummings to intervene.

“No Mr. Chairman, I did not mean to call Mr. Meadows a racist,” Tlaib says

Cummings highlights that he is the son of sharecroppers and is in a good position to discuss racism.

Patton is a staunch defender of Trump and longtime friend of Cohen. The Washington Post said she posted on Instagram that she was sad to have been so close to Cohen. “As the daughter of a man born in Birmingham, Alabama, there is no amount of money in the world that would make me work for a man who I thought harbored bigoted or racist ideologies,” she wrote.

Ayanna Pressley, a Democrat from Massachusetts, questions Cohen about Trump’s charity, the Trump Foundation.

She concludes by asking if a person who makes racist comments and “has a black friend,” can still be a racist?

Cohen says “yes.”

The black friend Pressley is referring to is most likely Lynne Patton, an official at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, who was invited by Republican Mark Meadows to stand at the testimony earlier today.

Patton told the Washington Post that she happened to be in DC for a HUD meeting when Meadows invited her to attend the hearing.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat from New York, speeds through earlier lines of questioning.

Cohen confirms Trump presented inflated assets. Ocasio-Cortez asks where we can find evidence of this. Cohen says in the Trump Organization.

Ocasio-Cortez notes that she drives past a Trump golf course in the Bronx every day on the way from her home to work. She cites Washington Post reporting that suggest Trump has improperly devalued assets to gain tax benefits. “It’s identical what he did at Trump national golf club,” Cohen says

Ocasio-Cortez repeatedly asks Cohen who can provide information on Trump’s alleged efforts to avoid paying taxes.

Cohen says the person who can clarify these questions is Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s longtime chief financial officer.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez questions Michael Cohen on 27 February. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
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Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, asks about what he calls the “smoking gun” document in Cohen’s testimony – a check signed by Donald Trump Jr to fund illegal hush money payments to pornographic actor, Stormy Daniels.

Khanna asks if Trump’s criminal conspiracy involved the president, his eldest son and Allen Weisselberg, the Trumps’ longtime chief financial officer.

Cohen responds: “yes.”

Khanna asked whether the Southern District of New York (SDNY) is investigating a criminal conspiracy among the four people and Cohen responds he did not want to answer. Cohen has said repeatedly today that there are topics he cannot discuss related to the SDNY investigation.

The Guardian’s Jon Swaine wrote about the significance of the check this morning: “the finding that Donald Jr was directly involved in the scheme to pay off Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, could mean the president’s son faces legal jeopardy.”

As the investigation into Trump’s administration unfolds…

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