A newly-released letter has been obtained by The Daily Mail that proves Michael Cohen, a former Trump lawyer and star witness in the case against the former president, directly contradicted his recent grand jury testimony.
On March 13, Cohen testified in front of a grand jury investigating hush money that was allegedly paid to porn star Stormy Daniels to settle rumors about an extramarital affair between herself and former President Donald Trump.
Under oath, Cohen told the grand jury that Trump had him pay Daniels off with $130,000 of his personal funds, saying that the former president “directed [him] to use [his] own personal funds from a Home Equity Line of Credit to avoid any money being traced back to him that could negatively impact his campaign.”
Cohen added that Trump later reimbursed him with his own personal funds.
However, a recently-surfaced document disproving Cohen’s sworn testimony could cause the prosecutor’s case against Trump to fall apart.
On February 8, 2018, Cohen’s attorney Stephen Ryan wrote to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) saying that Cohen had “used his own personal funds” to facilitate the payment and that “neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed Mr. Cohen for the payment directly or indirectly.”
“In a private transaction in 2016, before the U.S. presidential election, Mr. Cohen used his own personal funds to facilitate a payment of $130,000 to Ms. Stephanie Clifford,” wrote Ryan. “Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed Mr. Cohen for the payment directly or indirectly.”
“Contrary to the allegations in the complaint, which are entirely speculative, neither Mr. Cohen nor Essential Consultants LLC made any in-kind contributions to Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., or any other presidential campaign committee,” Ryan wrote in the letter.
Save up to 66% on MyPillow products. Use promo code FedUp at checkout and save up to 66%.
“Mr. Cohen has not been a government employee during any of the relevant time period,” added Ryan. “The payment in question does not constitute a campaign contribution or expenditure and, therefore, the FEC lacks jurisdiction over this matter. The complainants have not and cannot present any evidence to the contrary. Accordingly, the complaint should be diminished
Based on this letter, Cohen was not being truthful in his testimony when he claimed he had been reimbursed personally by Trump.
It is expected that Trump’s current lawyers will jump on this discrepancy and argue that Cohen’s testimony to the grand jury should be thrown out.
