Senate panel wants public testimony from Trump lawyer

The Senate Intelligence Committee has requested that President Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, testify before the panel in an open session next month.

Cohen has accepted the invitation, his lawyer said in an email to The Hill. 

Cohen arrived on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning to testify behind closed doors, an interview that was abruptly canceled after he published a written statement to the media shortly after entering the committee’s spaces. 

The committee’s leaders said in a swiftly issued statement that the committee scuttled the interview because Cohen had ignored a request not to speak to press. Committee staff were interviewing him in the panel’s probe into Russian interference in the presidential election. 

{mosads}Hinting at frustration within the committee, Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) vowed immediately to seek Cohen’s testimony in public instead of continuing the private interview, which was scheduled to be held with staff and not under oath. 

The Intelligence Committee has struggled to keep secret its investigation into Russian meddling in the presidential election, with press reports exposing testimony from witnesses scheduled to appear in private session.

Previous witnesses associated with the president have issued public statements surrounding their interviews with the committee, including the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner. 

“We’ve changed the agreement that we have with people since Jared Kushner was in and this is the model we’ll follow,” Burr told reporters Tuesday afternoon.   

“We don’t expect individuals who come behind closed doors to come out and publicly go out and tell —”

“— their side of the story only,” said Warner, completing Burr’s sentence. 

Burr and Warner have requested that Cohen appear on Oct. 25 at 10 a.m. 

Cohen had already been inside the committee’s closed staff spaces for close to two hours when he emerged to announce the postponement of the interview on Tuesday morning.

During that time, he released a statement and some associated documents on his website. The documents included a blanket denial of any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. 

Steve Ryan, an attorney for Cohen, told reporters that the statement was “factual,” “accurate” and “respectful” and that Cohen stands behind it. 

“Last week, the fact that we would be here today and you would be visiting to us was leaked to the press,” Ryan said, referring to press reports revealing the closed-door testimony.  

“So everyone knew that we would be here today. Accordingly, we provided the short four-page opening statement that Mr. Cohen intended deliver to the press at 10 o’clock this morning.”

Updated: 6:26 p.m.