By Aaron Miller-
Michael Cohen, the former lawyer of U.S President Donald Trump, is set to release a set of damning testimonies against president, in a massive attempt to discredit the president.
Trump, who has survived a number of allegations since his inauguration to the presidential office, will be forced to confront the fresh set of allegations that threatens to greatly undermine his credibility following longstanding allegations of collusion with Russia , before and during the 2016 elections.
The testimony comes as Mr Trump meets North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi for a second summit to discuss denuclearisation on the Korean peninsula. He responded on Twitter, insisting Mr Cohen was “lying in order to reduce his prison time”.
Cohen will say that the American president to knew in advance about a leak of emails that would hurt his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
He also alleges that president Trump directed negotiations for a real estate project in Moscow even as he campaigned for the presidency and publicly stated he had no business interests in Russia, according to a draft of Cohen’s planned testimony.
In the text of his planned statement before a House of Representatives committee, Cohen calls Trump a “racist,” a “conman” and a “cheat,” and said he would be handing over documents to support his assertions. The convicted lawyer insists that Trump ordered him to pay $130,000 to adult film actress , Stormy Daniels in order to cover up an affair in violation of campaign finance laws.
LUCRATIVE
The jailed lawyer is also going to say a relatively lucrative sum of $35,000 monthly cheques was paid to him in reimbursement for his hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels, Cohen is expected to bring documentation revealing who signed the checks, according to that source. His testimony is to be presented before an Oversight Committee today, Wednesday, according to a memo from the committee. “Mr. Cohen has agreed to testify voluntarily and in public before the Oversight Committee. He will not be under subpoena,” the memo reads..
In his first public response to the revelations, Mr Trump said on Twitter: “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!” White House spokeswoman, Sarah Saunders has called him a ”convicted liar”
On Tuesday, Cohen testified behind closed doors to the Senate Intelligence Committee, and has another non-public hearing before the House Intelligence Committee tomorrow
While Cohen is expected to talk on Wednesday about Trump’s interest n the proposed skyscraper project in Moscow long after he secured the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, the bulk of his testimony will be about allegations of wrongdoing by Trump as a businessman and the hush payments, the source said.