Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez line of questioning to Michael Cohen on Wednesday led to Donald Trump's long time personal attorney to urge her to go after the president's tax returns.
Cohen also offered a list of people at the Trump Organization that the House Oversight and Reform Committee could subpoena for more information.
Cohen, in response to Ocasio-Cortez's inquires, revealed additional details on how Trump provided insurance companies with financials that exaggerated his assets and wealth but wanted to reduce his real estate taxes - and if the president lied on insurance and IRS forms to make this happen, that would be fraud.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's questions to Michael Cohen laid the groundwork for additional subpoenas on Trump's businesses and taxes
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez kept her questions to Michael Cohen short and to the point
Ocasio-Cortez kept her questions to Cohen short and to the point - unlike many of her colleagues on the House Oversight and Reform Committee who used their questioning time to make political points.
The freshman Democrat kept her focus on the money and whether there could have been financial fraud on the part of the president.
She inquired if the president was interested in lowering his real estate taxes.
When Cohen replied in the affirmative, she asked how that would be done.
'You deflate the value of the asset and then you put in a request to the tax department for a destruction,' he said in response.
She stayed on financial issues for nearly all her questioning as she laid the groundwork for the committee to continue and expand its investigation of the president's business empire.
'Where would the committee find more information on this? Do you think we need to review his financial statements and tax returns in order to compare them?,' she asked.
'Yes, and you would find it at the Trump Org,' Cohen told her.
She also set up the possibility of the committee using its subpoena power to obtain the president's tax records and other financial documents.
Ocasio-Cortez inquired if it 'would it help for the committee to obtain federal and state returns from the president and his company to address that?'
'I believe so,' Cohen told her in her four minutes of questioning.
The Democrat from New York was one of the last lawmakers to question Cohen in his day of public testimony - his second out of three appearances this week on Capitol Hill and the only one before cameras.
Members ask questions in an order tied to their length of service on the committee. Ocasio-Cortez just joined it this year.
She also got Cohen, who was known as the president's fixer, to reveal the names of additional people who knew about Trump's business dealings, a list of names that could find themselves the subject of a Congressional subpoena.
Those names were Allen Weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the Trump Organization; Ron Lieberman, an executive vice president with the Trump Organization; and Matthew Calamari, the director of corporate security for the president.
'Yeah we probably will,' Oversight chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings said when asked after the hearing if there will be additional subpoenas.
He did sound a note of caution. 'There's certain areas we have to be careful with because special counsel and the Southern District of New York said there are certain areas they are getting into.'
He added: 'I think there are still a number of shoes to drop.'
Earlier in his nearly five hours before the committee, Cohen also said he didn't know if the president's tax returns were being audited, which is the reason Trump gave for not releasing them during the 2016 campaign even though other presidential contenders have released such information.
'Mr. Cohen, do you know whether President Trump's tax returns were really under audit by the IRS in 2016?' Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez asked him.
'I don't know the answer. I asked for a copy of the audit so that I could use it in terms of my statements to the press, and I was never able to obtain one,' Cohen said.
Additionally, Cohen provided the committee with three years of Trump's financial records that, if the committee subpoena's Trump's tax returns, they could use for comparison.
Oversight chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings said after the hearing there could be more subpoenas to come
Michael Cohen offered financial documents to the committee and said he did not know if the president's taxes were under audit
The documents show a Trump net worth of $8.6 billion in 2013
Trump's 2011 form showed $4.6 billion in assets
In 2012, Trump was claiming assets of $5 billion
The form shows Trump claimed his net worth was $5 billion in 2012
Cohen handed over internal Trump financial valuations from 2011 through 2013 – documents he said were used to try to obtain a loan for the football team purchase.
His valuations show a sudden jump in Trump's self-proclaimed worth, from $4.6 billion in 2012 to $8.7 billion a year later, when he was angling to buy the team.
In his opening statement, Cohen told the panel: 'As previously stated, I'm giving the Committee today three years of President Trump's financial statements, from 2011-2013, which he gave to Deutsche Bank to inquire about a loan to buy the Buffalo Bills and to Forbes [magazine]. These are Exhibits 1a, 1b, and 1c to my testimony. It was my experience that Mr. Trump inflated his total assets when it served his purposes, such as trying to be listed among the wealthiest people in Forbes, and deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes.'
Link hienalouca.com
https://hienalouca.com/2019/02/28/cohen-urges-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-to-demand-presidents-irs-returns-and-subpoena-his-lawyers/
Main photo article Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez line of questioning to Michael Cohen on Wednesday led to Donald Trump‘s long time personal attorney to urge her to go after the president’s tax returns.
Cohen also offered a list of people at the Trump Organization that the House Oversight and ...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/27/22/10381984-0-image-a-112_1551306173750.jpg
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