Not satisfied with Michael Cohen’s “bombshell” testimony, the Democrats have called their next witness to bring down President Donald Trump, and it’s…Sean Hannity?
In what may be another attempt at a perjury trap by the left, Democrat Rep. David Cicilline (RI) demanded that the Fox host and friend of President Trump testify about Cohen’s hush money payments to women who had affairs with the president.
This comes after a Thursday interview between Trump and the Fox host in which Hannity said that he heard Cohen say at least “a dozen times” that the former Trump fixer made the hush money payments of his own accord — not at Trump’s direction, as Cohen has testified.
Hannity called on to testify
Hannity spoke with Trump on Thursday following the president’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam, which coincided — some say not by mistake — with Cohen’s highly publicized public testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Wednesday.
When the conversation touched on the anti-Trump media soap opera that was brewing back home, Hannity claimed that Cohen had told him that he made the call on hush money payments to women Trump had affairs with — a direct contradiction with what Cohen claimed as recently as Wednesday in his public testimony.
“I can tell you personally, he said to me at least a dozen times that he made the decision on the payments and he didn’t tell you,” Hannity said. “He told me that personally.”
Cicilline said that Hannity’s comments marked him as a voluntary witness and called for him to testify about the hush money payments in a Friday tweet.
Sean Hannity is now volunteering himself as a witness. I look forward to his testimony. https://t.co/eOjhlkg4mU
— David Cicilline (@davidcicilline) March 1, 2019
A spokesman for Cicilline added: “If [Hannity] was lying, it wouldn’t be the first time. This is the same guy who claimed inside knowledge that Russia didn’t hack the DNC until a federal judge ordered him to stop. Regardless, if he feels he has information that’s relevant to his investigation, he should share it under oath with Congress.”
Several Trump associates have been charged with lying to Congress or investigators in Robert Mueller’s probe of alleged collusion, with Roger Stone being the latest Trump confidante to fall for perjury rather than anything to do with collusion, and if Hannity were to testify before Congress under oath, he wouldn’t be wrong to worry about more of the same. Some legal scholars have described Mueller’s prosecutorial approach as leaning heavily on so-called “perjury traps,” which involves catching a witness in a lie — or simply a misstatement — and then pressuring them to cooperate against the target of an investigation.
Democrats seize on Cohen circus
Cohen himself is heading to prison in May for perjury before Congress, as well as bank fraud, tax evasion, and campaign finance charges for making hush money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, which Cohen claims he made at Trump’s behest.
He again made that claim on Wednesday before Congress amid hours of public testimony in which Cohen described his former boss as a “con-man,” a “racist,” and a “cheat” and likened him to a mob boss. Cohen also presented two $35,000 checks that he said were reimbursements from the Trump family for payments he gave to Stormy Daniels for her silence.
Democrats were thrilled at Cohen’s “explosive” testimony, while Republicans mostly agreed it was fairly worthless — both because of Cohen’s lack of credibility and because he failed to introduce new legal liabilities for the president. Rather than hammering a nail in Trump’s coffin, the former Trump fixer punched a hole in the “Russia-gate” theory when he denied any knowledge of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Meanwhile, Trump has discredited Cohen, who once said he would “take a bullet” for Trump, calling him a liar and a “rat” who is desperate to lighten his punishment. Others question whether Cohen is eager to rehabilitate himself to the country by turning on his former boss in dramatic public fashion, or if he could even be eyeing a book deal.
Oh’ I see! Now that the 2 year Russian Collusion case has fallen apart, there was no Collusion except bye Crooked Hillary and the Democrats, they say, “gee, I have an idea, let’s look at Trump’s finances and every deal he has ever done. Let’s follow discredited Michael Cohen…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 1, 2019
But even if Cohen’s testimony is thrown aside, Democrats have already signaled that they intend to blow past Robert Mueller’s final report and begin their own investigations of Trump’s finances and family, with House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) opening an obstruction of justice probe into Trump on Monday, the latest in a spate of investigations against the president launched by Democrats including House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Oversight and Committee chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD), both of whom helped Cohen prepare for his recent testimony.
With these probes on the horizon, Democrats are eager to bring in new witnesses in for testimony — and even Hannity might be on that list now.
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