I read the Cohen statement and I have 2 concerns.

[mindfulNJ]

One is that the checks don't have any memos about what they're for, and that he doesn't remember the exact date he says he saw Junior talk to Trump about the meeting...maybe three..he also said he just heard the word "meeting" without any context.

Don't you think the R's will seize on these points?

[mobeau69]

1. No, but if it was for anything legal there would be underlying documentation investigators would

want to look at.

[mindfulNJ]

3. I'm hoping

that this will be addressed in the questioning.

[samnsara]

2. of course they will.. im just hoping they are missing pieces of a puzzle....

..that makes sense when all together..

[mobeau69]

6. Yeah, like Cohen's home equity loan for the same total as the checks.

[mindfulNJ]

8. Yep.

I'm hopeful that one of the Dem Congresspersons will use their five minutes to lay this out.

[manor321]

4. Of course. But why focus on this negative stuff?

This will be blockbuster testimony, especially for people who don't follow the news closely. IMHO, it will be devastating because of the affect on those viewers.

[mindfulNJ]

7. I'm trying not to be negative

but this a*hole has a million lives and has survived countless scandals that would have sunk every other president in history.

[Atticus]

5. Absolutely, but let's keep in mind that only in poorly written movies do such checks say

"hush money to porn star I had sex with and lied about".

Most prosecutions are a process of stacking brick on top of brick on top of brick until guilt is the hopefully inescapable conclusion. The check is a brick.

[honest.abe]

9. +1

[watoos]

10. Cohen doesn't have to prove anything at this hearing.

He just has to come off as being believable.

[NewJeffCT]

14. Cohen could get a lot more prison time

if he lies to Congress again.

[wishstar]

11. Cohen was no longer providing any legal services but Trump Org listed payments that way

Those checks are just part of already established false claims by Trump who denied any knowledge of any payments and alleged that Cohen was no longer his attorney by then. The payments were established by SDNY investigators to have been claimed by the Trump Org. as legal fees to Cohen, however the investigators also established that Cohen performed no legal services for Trump in 2017.

The fact that the payments amount to much more than the $130,000 paid to Stormy indicate that the payments were not just reimbursement but also included hush money to reward and keep Cohen quiet during the time he was continuing to lie to protect Trump, so I wonder if they will ask Cohen about that aspect of the 2017 payments.

[mindfulNJ]

15. Thank you

I'm sure the Congresspeople (the Dem ones) will clarify this in the questioning.

[DUgosh]

12. There wouldn't be a note on the check stub saying

Reimbursement for paying off escort - we have Spanky on tape saying he knew nothing about payments

[marylandblue]

13. Republicans will grasp at any tiny straw

[uponit7771]

21. +1, Red Don admitted to working with the Russians on Trump Tower Moscow at the same time...

... the Russians were attacking America's election systems and they'll still claim "no collusion"

[beachbum bob]

16. GOP will just say this a disgruntled ex-employee and leave at that. THE ONLY way to overcome

that tact would be for Cohen to announce during the hearing: "Well, I have the audio recording of trump telling me to do x-y-z"

that would be the "John Dean Moment"

[mindfulNJ]

18. You're right.

I'm thinking Cohen hasn't played his full hand in this statement...he is testifying behind closed doors for double the amount of time he is testifying in public. Gives me hope.

[beachbum bob]

20. cohen was/is a paranoid and why he secretly recorded meetings with clients, including trump,we know

mueller/DOJ have a number of tapes, but do we know whether or not cohen may have held some back? It would behoove him to make a pronouncement in the public portion of the testimony. Would send GOP into a frenzy and create a trump meltdown we have never seen before.


The only way to get trump and his circle is for this kind of hard evidence to be seen and heard. Otherwise this will lead nowhere

[gratuitous]

17. Of course the Republicans will seize on any disputable point

They have proven that their fealty to Trump far outweighs any loyalty they might still have to the country. One thing to keep in mind: Cohen's vagueness or incompleteness on any particular point may also be an indicator that he's not overtestifying, saying things that he doesn't know for a fact to be true. Make it plain when he's recounting a fact from memory, and when he's making a conjecture based on those facts, and his testimony will be all right regardless of Republican fly-specking.

[WeekiWater]

19. Cohen should ask them to follow up with Elliot Broidy to see what his check memo line states.

Remember, Broidy admitted Cohen helped him to pay off a Playboy Playmate.

In April, he resigned from his RNC position in the wake of a report that he had paid a former Playboy model $1.6 million in exchange for her silence about a sexual affair. Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen — another RNC fundraiser — helped arrange the settlement, Broidy acknowledged.

Washington Post

[marble falls]

22. Seriously because the memos don't say "hooker payoff"? That almost never ever happens.

[mindfulNJ]

23. I didn't think they would.

I'm just saying that the Republicans will use this as an excuse to put doubt in the public's mind about what the payments are for. They will seize on this immediately. They will grasp at any straw they see at this point instead of finally admitting that their beloved leader is a common crook and doing the right thing.

[marble falls]

24. And that's what forensic accountants are all about. That's how they discovere all that ...

income mobsters don't pay income taxes on.