GOP senator: ‘We’ll just have to see’ whether lawmakers can believe Cohen testimony

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said Sunday that lawmakers will “just have to see” whether Michael Cohen can be believed when he testifies this week after President Trump’s former attorney pleaded guilty to lying to Congress.

“I don’t know that we believe him this time. We’ll just have to see,” Blunt said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“I think the reason you have him back is when somebody lies to Congress in an investigation like this, the questions you might have asked the next witness don’t get asked,” he continued. “Somebody you might have called might not get called.”

{mosads}”It’s serious well beyond whatever Cohen might have said in that you misdirect the investigation,” Blunt said. “That’s why it’s so important those kinds of charges be taken very seriously.”

.@RoyBlunt says he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to believe Michael Cohen when he testifies to the Senate Intel Committee next week, after he lied previously: “I don’t know that we [will] believe him this time, we’ll just have to see.” pic.twitter.com/bEbmU59Lxt

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) February 24, 2019

Cohen was sentenced late last year to three years in prison on charges of bank fraud, tax fraud and campaign finance violations, as well as a charge of lying to congressional investigators about the timing of negotiations for a Trump Tower Moscow.

Cohen will speak privately with lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday and the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday, and will testify publicly on Wednesday before the House Oversight and Reform Committee.

Cohen previously served as Trump’s longtime personal attorney and fixer, but has since said he committed campaign finance violations at Trump’s direction when he paid two women during the 2016 election who alleged they had affairs with the president.