Does anyone understand the significance of the "foreign contacts" form that Cohen filled in?

[NurseJackie]

This seems to be the single, lone, one-and-only "gotcha" moment that the Republicans are hanging their hat on.

It was a fairly fast-paced exchange... but from what I could gather, either Cohen misunderstood the meaning or intent of the question... OR... the Republicans are intentionally trying to misinterpret things and blowing this out of proportion.

[zaj]

1. Sounds like Jordan misrepresented the wording and confused Cohen

[zaj]

4. A Dem read the form language into the record and...

... Cohen seemed to have been right in his answer, and Jordan was twisting the question.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Flynn, Manafort, etc got in trouble for lying on that form.

So repub. attack on Cohen for same thing.
I thought he handled it well.

FWIW, I am not convinced about Cohen's vows of fedemption, but that does not detract from his testimony.

Oh...and Kushner lied on his forms about all sorts of things and kept sending in corrections as they were caught.

[avebury]

6. Problem with Kushner is the fact that I don't know if he

has ever filled the form in right since he as had to correct it over and over and over and over again and so on.

[jberryhill]

9. No

That is incorrect.

Entirely different set of paperwork for an entirely different reason.

Flynn, Manafort, etc. got in trouble for failure to REGISTER as foreign agents, when they were doing work on behalf of foreign governments.

THIS form simply requests the witness to disclose whether they have, or have had, any contracts with foreign GOVERNMENT ENTITIES for the previous two years.

Cohen had contracts with a couple of foreign companies.

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. My old ears thought he was taking about "contacts"......n/t

[CincyDem]

3. Was later clarified by a Dem...

Sounds like the real question has to do with working for foreign government entities...not private/public corprorations based outside the US.

Meadows was trying to equate a consulting contract with Novartis with being a foreign agent. Haven't done consulting work for companies based outside the US, I can assure you that working for a public foreign corporation is NOT considered a FARA disclosure on forms like this.

I think Cohen will come back and explain it clearly. I don't think he or his lawyers misunderstood the question on for form...but for oath safety sake, Cohen said "we'll look at it".

That's meadows just slinging shit at the wall to smear him, IMHO.

caveat - I haven't seen the actual form that he filled out, I'm just going with the reading of the Dem who followed Meadows. What she read sounded more like the questions I've seen.

[marylandblue]

5. He had to state if he had contracts with foreign entities in the last 2 years.

He said "N/A," because he thought it meant lobbying contracts, but the committee member said it meant any contract. It's a minor gotcha since, at worst, it would just mean he misunderstood the form.

[UniteFightBack]

7. Foreign Governments. There was no gotcha. nt

[mercuryblues]

8. the form was clarified

It asks to reveal if he was working with a foreign government, not a private firm. Meadows lied in his questioning of that.

[NurseJackie]

10. ❤️❤️ Thanks for the replies, everyone! ❤️❤️

It's really wonderful to be able to get quick and thoughtful answers among my friends here!