Cohen to testify Trump dodged service in Vietnam

President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen will testify Wednesday that Trump dodged military service in Vietnam with false claims about a medical condition.

In his opening statement before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Cohen will say that Trump told him there “was no surgery” for bone spurs and instructed him not to answer reporters’ specific questions about his draft deferment.

“Mr. Trump claimed it was because of a bone spur, but when I asked for medical records, he gave me none and said there was no surgery,” Cohen will say in his testimony, according to a copy of his prepared remarks obtained by The Hill.

{mosads}“He told me not to answer the specific questions by reporters but rather offer simply the fact that he received a medical deferment,” Cohen adds. “He finished the conversation with the following comment. ‘You think I’m stupid? I wasn’t going to Vietnam.’”

Trump was granted a 1-Y medical deferment for a bone spurs diagnosis, in addition to four educational deferments, that allowed him to avoid the draft.

In December, the daughters of a New York podiatrist told The New York Times that they believe their father gave Trump the bone spurs diagnosis as a favor to Trump’s father, who was the doctor’s landlord.

The president and his lawyers have labeled Cohen an unreliable witness and a liar, saying he will say whatever he needs to in an effort to reduce his prison time.

“I don’t think the president has any concerns whatsoever about Michael Cohen,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday on Fox News. “I think Michael Cohen may need to be concerned for himself, but that’s certainly something that’s not influencing or bothering us in this building.”

Cohen will head to prison in early May after pleading guilty to a number of financial crimes committed while working for Trump. Cohen has also pleaded guilty to lying to Congress.

As a result, Trump’s allies on Wednesday are expected to rip into Cohen’s credibility during the hearing. 

Cohen plans to say in his opening statement that Trump is not a patriot.

“The sad fact is that I never heard Mr. Trump say anything in private that led me to believe he loved our nation or wanted to make it better,” Cohen will say. “In fact, he did the opposite.”