Former House Oversight Committee Chair Trey Gowdy slammed the House Democrats for asking President Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen to testify before Congress, despite the fact that he is heading to prison for the last lies he told Congress.
This Wednesday, Cohen delivered his public testimony, and while he was brought in to provide information on the accusations that Donald Trump colluded with the Russians as part of his campaign back in 2016, Cohen mostly delivered on character attacks of the president, instead of offering insight to his dealings with people from Russia.
During a Fox News interview, Trey Gowdy explained that he believes House Democrats brought in Michael Cohen, despite his convictions, to tie President Trump to campaign finance violations, rather than the stated goal of gathering information on Russia.
“Collusion. That’s what started this entire investigation. That’s the seminal question and that’s the one thing Michael Cohen’s been consistent on. In October of 2017, he said there was no evidence of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia. And he said it again today, but Democrats don’t want to hear that. They don’t want to hear that so now they want to move to an FEC [Federal Elections Commission] violation.” said Gowdy.
As Gowdy noted, Cohen denied that the President colluded with the Russians, however, he did try to tie Trump to Wikileaks via Roger Stone.
He claimed that President Trump was told by Stone that Julian Assange of Wikileaks was preparing to leak Hillary Clinton’s emails. Stone denies that he ever spoke to Assange.
Anyway, Trey Gowdy said that none of this matter simply because, even if it did happened, President Trump didn’t break any law.
“I’d be careful doing this, but let’s assume that Michael Cohen is telling the truth. What crime was committed?” Gowdy asked. “What crime is it listening to Roger Stone say, ‘I think Wikileaks is about to do what they tweeted they were going to do and dump a bunch of documents.’”
Gowdy explained that the entire testimony can be seen as a joke because Congress is the only body that considered Cohen a viable witness.
The Former House Oversight Committee Chair noted that both the Southern District of New York and Special Counsel Robert Mueller declined to use Cohen as a witness.
“The fact that Congress would allow someone that no real, serious investigation considers a witness to come and be their star witness shows how far Congress has fallen, and it breaks my heart to say that,” said Gowdy. “I care about the institution. But to call a convicted perjurer as your first witness was stunning to watch.”
