Tipsheet

Dem Rep: This Is 'The Most Serious Threat' to Trump's Presidency

Cortney O'Brien
Cortney O'Brien  |  January 18, 2019 9:05 AM

BuzzFeed is reporting that President Trump directed his former lawyer Michael Cohen to lie about his Trump Tower project in Moscow. 

Cohen pleaded guilty in November to lying about the deal in testimony and in a two-page statement to the Senate and House intelligence committees. Special counsel Robert Mueller noted that Cohen’s false claim that the project ended in January 2016 was an attempt to “minimize links between the Moscow Project and Individual 1” — widely understood to be Trump — “in hopes of limiting the ongoing Russia investigations.”

Now the two sources have told BuzzFeed News that Cohen also told the special counsel that after the election, the president personally instructed him to lie — by claiming that negotiations ended months earlier than they actually did — in order to obscure Trump’s involvement. (BuzzFeed)

If true, it could be "the most serious threat" to Trump's presidency, according to Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI), who reacted to the news on CNN Friday. He, along with Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), concluded that BuzzFeed has proven the president is guilty of obstruction of justice. He added that we now "don't even have to wonder if it's an impeachable offense."

Given the seriousness of the allegation, the congressmen demanded he and his colleagues are given a chance to investigate.

However, when asked by CNN's John Berman if he has evidence to prove Trump told Cohen to lie, Cicilline said "we've all seen the conduct of the president."

Berman noted that wasn't an answer and asked again, did he actually see the evidence?

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"I have not seen the evidence referenced in that article," Cicilline admitted.

While the report has yet to be confirmed or corroborated, one of the authors of the BuzzFeed report, Anthony Cormier, stood by his reporting on CNN Friday as "100 percent" truth.