Cohen to appear before Senate panel he lied to in Russia probe

As President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer starts three days of testimony on Capitol Hill Tuesday, Michael Cohen will be returning to the scene of the crime, where he gave false testimony in 2017 to the Senate Intelligence Committee, intentionally covering up the extent of contacts during the 2016 campaign between the Trump Organization and Russian officials, in what Cohen later called "blind loyalty to Donald Trump."

"It was because time and time again I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds rather than to listen to my own inner voice and my moral compass," Cohen said in federal court late last year, as the President's lawyer plead guilty to lying to Congress when questioned in the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 elections.

In his guilty plea with the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Cohen acknowledged submitting false letters to both the House and Senate intelligence committees about work on a possible Trump Tower in Moscow during 2016, and also delivered those same falsehoods in his testimony to those panels.

In his 2017 testimony, Cohen said the Trump Tower Moscow project 'was terminated in January of 2016," noting specifically that the decision occurred before the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire Primary.

But in his guilty plea submitted in December 2018, Cohen acknowledged that he had repeatedly lied to Senators about the contacts between himself, the Trump Organization, and Russian officials, misleading Congress both in a written letter and his actual testimony, in order to protect "Individual-1" - President Trump.

In documents released with his guilty plea, federal prosecutors said Cohen 'knowingly and deliberately' made a series of 'false representations' to Congress:

+ Cohen misled lawmakers by saying that work on the Trump Tower Moscow project ended in January 2016, as Cohen denied that it had been discussed extensively with others in the Trump Organization.

+ Cohen lied about making plans to travel in 2016 to Russia to deal with the Trump Tower Moscow project.

+ Cohen did not tell the truth when he said that he 'never considered' asking President Trump to travel to Moscow to work on the Trump Tower project.

+ Cohen lied when he said he did not recall any Russian government responses or contacts about the Trump Tower Moscow project.

In the Cohen guilty plea, the Special Counsel's office said Cohen "made the false statements to (1) minimize links between the Moscow Project and Individual 1 and (2) give the false impression that the Moscow project ended before" the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire Primary.

Democrats have made clear they want to know more this week about why Cohen felt he needed to lie in order to protect the President.

Asked last week about Cohen's testimony, the President - who has called Cohen a 'rat' - said he wasn't concerned.

"It's lawyer-client, but, you know - he's taking his own chances," Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

Cox Media Group