Byron York: For GOP, attacking Michael Cohen's credibility is a double-edged sword
by Byron York
| February 27, 2019 02:34 PM
Republicans relentlessly attacked Michael Cohen's credibility when the president's former fixer appeared before the House Oversight Committee Wednesday. It wasn't hard to do; in addition to pleading guilty to lying to Congress, Cohen also pleaded guilty to an extensive tax evasion scheme, plus bank fraud.
Beyond that, some of Cohen's statements strained credulity. In his sensational opening testimony, Cohen noted that he committed felonies "for the benefit of, at the direction of, and in coordination with" Donald Trump, but failed to mention the more numerous, more serious felonies — the tax evasion and bank fraud — that he committed solely for himself. At another point, Cohen said, "I never defrauded any bank," when he in fact did just that.
So, it would have been impossible for Republicans not to point out Cohen's problems with the truth. But doing so created another problem for the president's defenders.
A big problem: At the same time that Cohen was trashing the president — " He is a racist. He is a conman. He is a cheat" — Cohen was also knocking down some of the wilder rumors that have spread about Trump since he started running for president. Some of those rumors stayed at the whisper stage; others were reported in the press.
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https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/431926-cohen-claims-batter-trump
