Former Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen got slapped Wednesday with another criminal referral to the Justice Department.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) urged the DOJ to investigate Cohen for allegedly lying to Congress on at least six occasions in 2019.
“We again request that the Justice Department investigate whether any of Mr. Cohen’s testimony warrants another charge,” Jordan and Comer wrote in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Republicans on the judiciary committee asked the DOJ in 2019 to investigate Cohen over testimony he delivered to the panel that February, but the feds declined to take up the referral at the time.
The six alleged infractions included Cohen claiming that he hadn’t tried to get a job in former President Donald Trump’s administrations, his insistence that he hadn’t called for the creation of a social media account called “WomenForCohen” and denying that he had any business with a foreign government he was required to report.
Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer” also allegedly lied to Congress by denying having committed fraudulent acts he later pleaded guilty to and by claiming that he had “blind loyalty” to the then-president.
Comer and Jordan pointed out that prosecutors actually found evidence Cohen “expected to be given a prominent role and title in the new administration” of Trump.
They also pointed to statements from the owner of the WomenForCohen account that apparently contradicted Cohen’s claim, two contracts he had in 2017 that featured entities partly owned by foreign governments and actions that suggested he didn’t have “blind loyalty” to Trump.
Cohen, who eventually had a bitter falling out with Trump, will likely be a key witness in the ex-president’s hush money criminal trial underway in Manhattan.
“Currently, Manhattan’s popularly elected District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, is using Cohen as his star witness in an ongoing criminal prosecution of President Donald Trump,” Comer and Jordan wrote.
“Bragg’s case heavily relies on Cohen’s testimony and credibility.”
Comer and Jordan also referenced a separate allegation of Cohen lying to Congress involving the House Intelligence Committee.
In a 2019 appearance before the panel, Comer testified that he did not recall Trump requesting him to bump up the value of the former president’s estate holdings to secure a more favorable loan.
But last year, during Trump’s New York civil fraud trial, Cohen was pressed again about whether he was asked to skew the numbers.
“I was tasked by Mr. Trump to increase the total assets based upon a number that he arbitrarily elected … and my responsibility, along with [then-Trump Organization CFO] Allen Weisselberg, primarily, was to reverse-engineer,” he said.
Trump was later ordered to pay over $454 million in that case and has appealed the verdict.
Trump lawyer Alina Habba later followed up with Cohen about the apparent inconsistency with his prior testimony.
Cohen replied, “yes” when asked if he “lied under oath” to Congress — which is punishable by up to five years in prison.
House Republican Conference chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) called on the DOJ to investigate the matter last year.
Then, earlier this month, they renewed their request to the DOJ.
Comer and Jordan provided transcripts and other material to back up their request to Garland.
“Congress cannot perform its oversight function if witnesses who appear before its committees do not provide truthful testimony,” they wrote.
Cohen was previously sentenced to three years after pleading guilty in 2018 to crimes including violating US campaign finance laws during Trump’s 2016 presidential run.
