Michael Cohen subpoenaed to testify before Senate Intelligence Committee
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The Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday issued a subpoena to Michael Cohen to appear before the panel, a day after the former Trump attorney postponed scheduled testimony before another congressional committee.
Cohen’s attorney and communications adviser Lanny Davis told Fox News that the committee, led by Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Ranking Member Mark Warner, D-Va., served his client with a subpoena Thursday morning.
The committee’s decision to subpoena Cohen comes after Davis announced on Wednesday that a public hearing before the House Oversight Committee, slated for Feb. 7, would be postponed due to alleged threats from the president and his attorney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
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“Due to ongoing threats against his family from President Trump and Mr. Giuliani, as recently as this weekend, as well as Mr. Cohen’s continued cooperation with ongoing investigations, by advice of counsel, Mr. Cohen’s appearance will be postponed to a later date,” Davis said Wednesday.
He added, “This is a time where Mr. Cohen had to put his family and their safety first.”
Davis, who said Cohen “looks forward to testifying at the appropriate time,” claimed Trump and Giuliani had threatened Cohen, who was recently sentenced to three years in prison.
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Burr and Warner did not confirm the existence of a subpoena and declined to comment when asked whether the committee issued one to Cohen on Thursday. It is unclear when Cohen could appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee to testify. Cohen does not have to report to prison until March 6.
Cohen previously testified in private before the same committee in August 2017. In November, as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress during that deposition.
On Capitol Hill Thursday, when asked about Cohen, Warner told reporters: "He lied to the committee."
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"He has an enormous number of unanswered questions about Trump Tower and a variety of other items that we'd be interested in," Warner said.
Cohen lied about the timeline of a Trump real estate project in Moscow, claiming that his communications with Russia on the deal ended in January 2016—prior to the Iowa caucuses. In his guilty plea, he acknowledged that he had communications with Russian official about a potential Trump Tower project in Moscow up until June 2016—when Trump had already secured the GOP nomination for president.
Cohen hired Davis in July to represent him in the federal criminal investigation into his personal business dealings and involvement in arranging hush-money payments to former Playboy model Karen McDougal and adult film star Stormy Daniels in the weeks leading up to the 2016 presidential election in exchange for their silence about alleged sexual encounters with Trump.
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In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance and other violations, brought as part of a grand jury probe in the Southern District of New York. Prosecutors and Cohen himself said he orchestrated payments of more than $130,000 to McDougal and Daniels at Trump’s direction.
Fox News' Jason Donner contributed to this report.