WATCH: Michael Cohen testifies: 'I am ashamed because I know what Mr. Trump is. He is a racist. He is a con man. He is a cheat.'
Democrats, who now control the committee, asked Cohen questions Wednesday about alleged criminal conduct by Trump while Republican members on the committee largely sought to discredit and delegitimize Cohen’s testimony, with one lawmaker describing him as a “pathological liar” due to his previous false statements to Congress.
"Mr. Trump knew of and directed the Trump Moscow negotiations throughout the campaign and lied about it. He lied about it because he never expected to win. He also lied about it because he stood to make hundreds of millions of dollars on the Moscow real estate project. And so I lied about it too," said Cohen.
Cohen also suggested that the president has not told the truth about why he hasn't released his tax returns to the public, saying he had not done so during his campaign because"an entire group of think tanks" would"start ripping it to pieces," he might be forced to pay more taxes or penalties, and the move would lead to an audit. Trump has repeatedly said that he does not want release his tax returns because he is already under audit.
An August 2017 check for $35,000 was signed by Trump, while a March 2017 check for the same amount was signed by both Donald Trump Jr. and Trump Organization Chief Operating Officer Allen Weisselberg. Cohen's documentation and testimony, said Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md.,"raises grave questions about the legality of President Trump's conduct and the truthfulness of his statements while he was president."
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