A legal representative for Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen expressed concern to congressional investigators this week about his clients’ safety and urged Republicans to rein in the president’s attacks on his former fixer.
Lanny Davis, Cohen’s legal adviser and spokesman, traveled to Capitol Hill in recent days to discuss security and other logistical issues in meetings with House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Democratic committee aides. He said he pressed Republicans on Trump’s repeated tweets about Cohen’s family — particularly his client’s father-in-law — urging them to get their party leader to tone down his rhetoric about Cohen.
“I’m very concerned about the president of the United States acting like a mobster,” Davis said in a short phone interview Friday, just before an MSNBC appearance. “It’d not be any difference if the ‘don’ called somebody telling the truth a ‘rat’ and attacked the family and sent the implicit message to beware.”
Minutes later, Davis went on MSNBC to reiterate that message: “Family is out of bounds. There is only one person in this country — one president in our history — that would threaten family as a tactic to make fear of somebody he calls a ‘rat’ by telling the truth. And that’s President Trump, and the Republicans should be holding him accountable.”
Oversight Democratic and Republicans aides declined to comment for this story. But Democratic sources and one lawmaker on the panel told POLITICO that Democratic investigators were thinking about ways to push back on Trump and ensure Cohen’s safety.
Davis’ meeting with Hill staff come amid reports that his client is getting cold feet about testifying before Congress on Feb. 7.
Last Saturday, Trump suggested on “Fox News” that Cohen’s father-in-law was in legal jeopardy, and that Cohen should flip on his dad to get a shorter prison sentence. (Cohen is going to jail on March 6 after he pleaded guilty to charges of tax evasion and lying to Congress.)
“He should give information maybe on his father-in-law, because that’s the one that people want to look at,” Trump said.
Despite push back from Hill Democrats, who called Trump’s remarks a veiled threat on the family members of their new star witness, Trump doubled-down Friday morning, accusing Cohen on twitter of “lying to reduce his jail time! Watch father-in-law!”
The tweet comes a few weeks after Trump initially called Cohen, who’s cooperating with the FBI and special counsel Robert Muellers’ Russia probe, a “rat,” language traditionally used by Hollywood mafia bosses before execution of a strayed group member.
…….
- Discussion
-
A legal representative for Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen expressed concern to congressional investigators this week about his clients’ safety and urged Republicans to rein in the president’s attacks on his former fixer https://t.co/wiXBqZzrf4
— POLITICO (@politico) January 19, 2019
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.