Notable moments from Michael Cohen’s testimony about President Donald Trump
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Michael Cohen, a longtime confidante of the president, his former personal attorney and fixer, arrived on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to share publicly, for the first time, his side of the story.
Cohen’s fiery testimony, a written version of which was released to ABC News and other news outlets earlier, alleged that President Donald Trump is a “racist,” a “conman” and a “cheat” – and promised documents to back up Cohen’s claims.
Here are some of the notable moments from the ongoing hearing.
Word of the Day?
A few hours before the long-anticipated hearing got underway, Merriam Webster — which has frequently spell-checked the president — offered this Tweet:
“Word of the Day? Grift — to obtain money illicitly.”
Good morning! Today’s #WordOfTheDay is ‘grift’ https://t.co/LsdLUWP6GU pic.twitter.com/8yX9VtRabV
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) February 27, 2019
The hearing kicked off with a move by Republicans, led by Trump ally Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, to postpone the hearing because Cohen’s testimony was not delivered 24-hours ahead of time — a procedural sticking point that Republicans said proved Cohen wasn’t following the rules.
“It was an intentional effort by this witness and his advisors to once again show his disdain for this body,” Meadows said.
The hearing continued after a vote, which fell along party lines and gave the majority to the Democrats.
“You’ve made it clear that you do not want the American people to hear what Mr. Cohen has to say, but the American people have a right to hear him. So we’re going to proceed. The American people can judge his credibility for themselves,” Democratic Chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings said.
Democrats, who acknowledged Cohen’s scarred history and upcoming prison time, sought to give Cohen a platform to share his side of the story with the country. Republicans repeatedly called on Cohen’s history of lying to Congress – one of the crimes he is going to prison for – as proof that he could not be taken at his word.
Copyright © 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
