GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz has deleted a tweet accusing ex-Trump fixer Michael Cohen of philandering and apologized publicly for making the charged allegation.
Gaetz claimed in the now deleted tweet, without evidence, that Cohen had multiple 'girlfriends' his wife should be aware of as he prepares to spend time behind bars.
Cohen will testify publicly this morning for the first time about the crimes he claims Donald Trump directed him to commit and misconduct he says he witnessed within the president's business, and possibly his campaign.
Gaetz is not on the committee that will question Cohen. Still, his tweet was viewed as potential witness tampering, as the Florida lawmaker is an ally of the president's.
His apology came after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reprimanded him on Twitter for the salacious charge.
He told her in a reply: 'Speaker, I want to get the truth too. While it is important 2 create context around the testimony of liars like Michael Cohen, it was NOT my intent to threaten, as some believe I did. I’m deleting the tweet & I should have chosen words that better showed my intent. I’m sorry.'
Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, arrives to testify before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, on Capitol Hill on Wednesday
GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz deleted a tweet accusing the ex-Trump fixer of philandering and apologized publicly for making the charged allegation
His apology came after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reprimanded him on Twitter for the salacious charge
Gaetz is not on the committee that will question Cohen. Still, his tweet was viewed as potential witness tampering, as the Florida lawmaker is an ally of the president's
The Republican congressman was not initially contrite. He defended his conduct to reporters outside his congressional office in Washington. He apologized late Tuesday night
The Republican congressman was not initially contrite. He defended his conduct to reporters outside his congressional office in Washington, saying that he was 'witness testing not witness tampering' with his accusation.
'I don't threaten anybody. Michael Cohen threatens people,' he charged.
He said Cohen has a 'PhD in intimidation' and should be held accountable for his 'stream of lies.'
'We already know that Michael Cohen lies to Congress. We already know that Michael Cohen lies to law enforcement. Now we're gonna find out if Michael Cohen lies to his own family,' he said.
He told a fellow representative, California's Ro Khanna, who sent a tweet calling out his conduct that he was 'absolutely' right to challenge Cohen.
'We absolutely should encourage all witnesses to testify. I want Michael Cohen to testify so we can show his lies. We should be able to paint an accurate picture of witnesses,' he said.
But once Pelosi issued a statement cautioning all lawmakers about witness tampering, Gaetz backed off.
'I encourage all Members to be mindful that comments made on social media or in the press can adversely affect the ability of House Committees to obtain the truthful and complete information necessary to fulfill their duties,' she said.
He told a fellow representative, California's Ro Khanna, who sent a tweet calling out his conduct that he was 'absolutely' right to challenge Cohen
Gaetz had taken a page from Trump's book on Tuesday when he accused the president's former attorney without evidence, of having multiple affairs on the eve of Cohen's blockbuster public testimony, in which he is expected to call his former boss a liar, a criminal and a racist.
The congressman said in a tweet that Cohen's wife, Lauren, and her father should have a 'chat' with the disgraced attorney, suggesting in a tweet that he was hiding more than one illicit relationship from his family.
'Hey @MichaelCohen212 - Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I wonder if she’ll remain faithful when you’re in prison. She’s about to learn a lot...' he tweeted.
Just over an house later a Democratic member of the committee, New Jersey congressman Bill Pascrell, demanded that Gaetz be investigated for attempting to intimidate a witness.
Trump has said publicly that journalists should look into Cohen's father-in-law, Fima Shusterman and hinted that he is in some way involved in fraud.
The Republican congressman took a page from Donald Trump's book and accused the president's former fixer, without evidence, of having multiple affairs
Family: Michael Cohen and his wife Lauren (right) share two children, Samantha (left) and Jake (second from left)
The president, who is currently in Vietnam, has claimed that Cohen is lying about him
Cohen's testimony on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to the Senate Intelligence Committee was classified. He'll be grilled publicly on Wednesday by lawmakers who sit on House Oversight.
When he left the Senate committee he did not address the cheating claims but said: 'At this point in time I really appreciate the opportunity that was given to me to clear the record, to tell the truth and I look forward to tomorrow to be able in my voice to tell the American people my story and I'm going to let the American people decide exactly who is telling the truth.'
In an phone interview with the Daily Beast after his tweet, Gaetz, who is not on Oversight, insisted he's not attempting to intimidate Cohen.
He said said he was merely 'challenging the veracity and character of a witness' before Cohen's public testimony.
'We do it everyday. We typically do it during people's testimony,' he said. 'This is what it looks like to compete in the marketplace of ideas.'
The editor-in-chief of Mother Jones brought up a DUI charge that Gaetz was arrested for in 2014
Gaetz insisted that he was not directed to issue the tweet by the Trump or anyone inside the administration. He did not tell the Daily Beast how he knew about Cohen's alleged philandering, either.
Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill later in the evening, Gaetz said his tweet 'speaks for itself' and reporters should 'tune in' to the Wednesday hearing to find out what he knows.
He confirmed that he had not spoken to the president about the allegation.
'I think the President’s a little busy saving us from nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula to be worried about my Twitter feed,' he contended.
He told the Daily Beast he believes that Cohen's marriage is fair game, because it speaks to the 'veracity' of the congressman's testimony. One of Cohen's admitted crimes is deceit.
Cohen apologized to senators on Tuesday for lying in previous testimony as he started three days of testimony on Capitol Hill, where the topics will include racist remarks he's heard from the president and allegations of criminal activity on the part of Trump.
Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein told DailyMail.com that Cohen - who pleaded guilty to lying to Congress - appeared credible to lawmakers and apologized to them.
'He appeared credible to me today, and he apologized, he said he was going away, you know, he understands, and I think he made efforts to be absolutely truthful,' she said.
Video attack: Republican released this YouTube advert mocking Cohen before he heads to federal prison
Mockery: This is a still image from the GOP video which the party hopes will help discredit the long-time Trump fixer
Exit: Michael Cohenleft Capitol Hill Tuesday after the first of three days of blockbuster hearings saying that he had told the truth and would do so Wednesday
Aide: Michael Cohen was accompanied by Lanny Davis (left), the long-term Clinton advisor who is acting as his personal attorney
Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein told DailyMail.com that Cohen - who pleaded guilty to lying to Congress - appeared credible to lawmakers and apologized
Same time: Donald Trump arrived in Hanoi for a summit with Kim Jong Un exactly as the former fixer he has branded a liar arrived on Capitol Hill
Cohen's credibility has been questioned given his admission he lied to lawmakers when he appeared before the House and Senate intelligence committees in 2017.
Feinstein declined to offer specific details on what Cohen, who was known as Trump's fixer, discussed with committee members.
'The part I was in, which is about two hours, umm, he answered questions, he was really – it's classified, so I can't tell you much. I think that most of us know that this is very complicated picture,' she said.
Cohen's appearance on Tuesday was behind closed doors so lawmakers could grill him on a variety of matters, including Trump's business dealings with Russia.
Additionally, Cohen will offer senators a document that he claims shows the president engaged in criminal conduct around the hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, it was revealed Tuesday.
The document will refute a claim by Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani that Cohen used a $35,000 monthly retainer from the president as reimbursement for paying off Daniels, a source close to Cohen told Politico.
Giuliani has said Cohen used a monthly retainer made for legal services in reimbursement as repayment for the $130,000 given to Daniels in exchange for her silence.
The documents will show who signed the checks to Cohen, the Daily Beast reported.
As he gave evidence Cohen also learned that he was disbarred in New York because of his felony conviction in a ruling which prevents him practicing law. He had not attempted to fight the move.
It's over: How Michael Cohen was formally barred from being an attorney in New York
Cohen pleaded guilty to violating campaign-finance laws by facilitating payments to Daniels.
Cohen will also discuss the BuzzFeed report that Trump ordered him to lie to Congress about the Trump Tower Moscow deal. The article earned a rare - if carefully worded - denial from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office.
'He'll explain exactly why he lied and how he came to lie,' said the source told Politico.
Republican Sen. Susan Collins told reporters Cohen was receiving an 'extensive grilling' from the intelligence panel.
But the White House voiced anger at the ex-fixer's high-profile session.
'It's laughable that anyone would take a convicted liar like Cohen at his word, and pathetic to see him given yet another opportunity to spread his lies,' Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
Cohen's closed-door testimony was a prelude to his public appearance on Wednesday before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, to be followed by a second private session on Thursday before the House Intelligence Committee.
Wednesday's public hearing will overshadow the others merely by the presence of TV cameras, to which both Cohen and the lawmakers will be playing to as they engage in a verbal parley on a variety of issues, including the building of Trump Tower Moscow, the payoffs to women during the 2016 campaign, Trump's business dealings, and donations to the president's inaugural committee.
Lawmakers are also girding to ask him questions about a planned Moscow tower project that he pursued well into the 2016 presidential campaign. He plans to tell lawmakers Trump asked him about it 'several times.'
He further plans to talk about Trump's 'lies, racism and cheating as a private businessman,' according to a leaked copy of his prepared remarks.
Trump and his legal team have repeatedly branded Cohen as a liar, and say he cooperated with prosecutors and furnished false information to get a reduced jail sentence.
But one topic not the public agenda: Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and any possible collusion between Trump's team and Moscow.
Oversight panel chairman Elijah Cummings coordinated with his counterpart on the House Intel panel, Adam Schiff, and the two agreed the Russia conversation will happen discussed behind closed doors at the intelligence session while Trump's business dealings will be the focus of the public hearing, according to a memo released Sunday by the Oversight panel.
Lawmakers can dismiss the chairman's guidance and ask whatever they chose, but Cohen's attorney, Lanny Davis, also said his client cannot talk about the Russia probe in public.
Republicans will be just as hard on Cohen as Democrats, particularly those closed tied to the president.
Republican Reps. Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows, two of Trump's staunches allies on Capitol Hill, sent a letter to Cohen's attorneys last week saying they intend to press the president's former personal lawyer on his questionable business dealings, his lies to Congress, his work for foreign entities, and even 'the fake Women for Cohen social media initiative he commissioned.'
One person who won't be in town for the show is President Trump, who jetted off to Vietnam on Monday for his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. But he will have the ability to tweet even with the 12 hour time difference and struck back at Cohen on Tuesday morning Eastern Daylight Time.
Last week, Cohen got a two-month reprieve from his deadline to report for his three years in jail, with a judge giving him until May 6. One of the reasons cited was his upcoming congressional testimony.
Cohen received a three-year sentence in December for bank and tax fraud, lying to Congress and violating campaign finance laws.
Even though Cohen can't talk about in public what he told Robert Mueller in the 70 hours he spent talking to that team for the special counsel's Russia investigation, he will speak publicly about his relationship with the president.
Cohen attorney Lanny Davis said last Tuesday his client will reveal how Trump is 'bigoted,' 'treats people badly,' and talk about he's heard the president say disparaging things about black people behind closed doors.
'I believe the issue in 2020 which Michael Cohen can speak to better than anyone is the man lacks character,' Davis told ABC's 'The Investigation' podcast. 'He speaks in bigoted words in private, which Michael Cohen will tell you. He treats people badly. He has no moral character in defrauding people in his businesses, and going bankrupt, and taking cash out, and putting people out of work. He lacks the moral compass that we expect in our presidents.'
But Davis said Cohen will be able to talk about 'what did you do for Mr. Trump for all those years and why.'
Trump's legal team has already made their case against Cohen by painting him as an unreliable witness.
Both Trump's lawyers and the president himself have pushed back against any comments Cohen may have made to Mueller or will make in public by labeling him as a rat and turn coat who can't be believed.
Davis conceded that Cohen knows he has a 'deep hole to climb out' of in terms of credibility.
But he argued his client has seen the light and wants to make amends for his past work for the president.
'He wouldn't take a pardon if Trump pleaded with him to take it. Why? Because it would be dirty,' Davis told ABC News.
Cohen has been cooperating with the special counsel's probe of Russia's role in the 2016 election. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York was the lead federal prosecutor earlier this year when Cohen pled guilty to eight counts, including tax fraud and campaign finance violations - that stemmed from the special counsel's investigation.
Cohen also has pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the timeline of conversations he had with Russian officials about building a Trump Tower Moscow as part of separate investigation by Mueller's team.
He was sentenced to three years in prison and is free on bail until that time.
Cohen's guilty pleas included a charge of lying to Congress about a Trump Organization real estate project that was slated for Moscow, Russia and discussed through the fall of 2016 while the president was running for office.
He testified in a closed congressional interview that the project he pursued on Trump's behalf was abandoned by the time of the Iowa Caucuses in January 2016; that would be consistent with Trump's 'political messaging.'
Mueller later filed documents revealing Cohen said he discussed the proposal with Trump on multiple occasions and with members of the president's family, later in the year – even after Trump became the Republican nominee for president.
Cohen said he lied out of loyalty to Trump.
Cohen also played a role in hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels (left) and former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal (right)
ROBERT MUELLER'S PROBE SO FAR: EIGHT CONVICTIONS - INCLUDING THREE TOP TRUMP AIDES, A JAILED ATTORNEY AND 25 RUSSIANS ACCUSED
GUILTY: MICHAEL FLYNN
Pleaded guilty to making false statements in December 2017. Awaiting sentence
Flynn was President Trump's former National Security Advisor and Robert Mueller's most senior scalp to date. He previously served when he was a three star general as President Obama's director of the Defense Intelligence Agency but was fired.
He admitted to lying to special counsel investigators about his conversations with a Russian ambassador in December 2016. He has agreed to cooperate with the special counsel investigation.
GUILTY: MICHAEL COHEN
Pleaded guilty to eight counts including fraud and two campaign finance violations in August 2018. Pleaded guilty to further count of lying to Congress in November 2018. Sentenced to three years in prison and $2 million in fines and forfeitures in December 2018
Cohen was Trump's longtime personal attorney, starting working for him and the Trump Organization in 2007. He is the longest-serving member of Trump's inner circle to be implicated by Mueller. Cohen professed unswerving devotion to Trump - and organized payments to silence two women who alleged they had sex with the-then candidate: porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. He admitted that payments to both women were felony campaign finance violations - and admitted that he acted at the 'direction' of 'Candidate-1': Donald Trump.
He also admitted tax fraud by lying about his income from loans he made, money from taxi medallions he owned, and other sources of income, at a cost to the Treasury of $1.3 million.
And he admitted lying to Congress in a rare use of the offense. The judge in his case let him report for prison on March 6 and recommended he serve it in a medium-security facility close to New York City.
GUILTY: PAUL MANAFORT
Found guilty of eight charges of bank and tax fraud in August 2018. Pleaded guilty to two further charges. Awaiting sentence
Manafort worked for Trump's campaign from March 2016 and chaired it from June to August 2016, overseeing Trump being adopted as Republican candidate at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. He is the most senior campaign official to be implicated by Mueller. Manafort was one of Washington D.C.'s longest-term and most influential lobbyists but in 2015, his money dried up and the next year he turned to Trump for help, offering to be his campaign chairman for free - in the hope of making more money afterwards. But Mueller unwound his previous finances and discovered years of tax and bank fraud as he coined in cash from pro-Russia political parties and oligarchs in Ukraine.
Manafort pleaded not guilty to 18 charges of tax and bank fraud but was convicted of eight counts. The jury was deadlocked on the other 10 charges. A second trial on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent is due in September.
GUILTY: RICK GATES
Pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the United States and making false statements in February 2018. Awaiting sentence
Gates was Manafort's former deputy at political consulting firm DMP International. He admitted to conspiring to defraud the U.S. government on financial activity, and to lying to investigators about a meeting Manafort had with a member of congress in 2013. As a result of his guilty plea and promise of cooperation, prosecutors vacated charges against Gates on bank fraud, bank fraud conspiracy, failure to disclose foreign bank accounts, filing false tax returns, helping prepare false tax filings, and falsely amending tax returns.
GUILTY AND JAILED: GEORGE PAPADOPOLOUS
Pleaded guilty to making false statements in October 2017. Sentenced to 14 days in September 2018, and reported to prison in November. Served 12 days and released on December 7, 2018
Papadopoulos was a member of Donald Trump's campaign foreign policy advisory committee. He admitted to lying to special counsel investigators about his contacts with London professor Josef Mifsud and Ivan Timofeev, the director of a Russian government-funded think tank.
He has agreed to cooperate with the special counsel investigation.
GUILTY AND JAILED: RICHARD PINEDO
Pleaded guilty to identity fraud in February 2018. Sentenced to a year in prison
Pinedo is a 28-year-old computer specialist from Santa Paula, California. He admitted to selling bank account numbers to Russian nationals over the internet that he had obtained using stolen identities.
He has agreed to cooperate with the special counsel investigation.
GUILTY AND JAILED: ALEX VAN DER ZWAAN
Pleaded guilty to making false statements in February 2018. He served a 30-day prison sentence earlier this year and was deported to the Netherlands on his release
Van der Zwaan is a Dutch attorney for Skadden Arps who worked on a Ukrainian political analysis report for Paul Manafort in 2012.
He admitted to lying to special counsel investigators about when he last spoke with Rick Gates and Konstantin Kilimnik.
GUILTY: W. SAMUEL PATTEN
Pleaded guilty in August 2018 to failing to register as a lobbyist while doing work for a Ukrainian political party. Awaiting sentence
Patten, a long-time D.C. lobbyist was a business partner of Paul Manafort. He pleaded guilty to admitting to arranging an illegal $50,000 donation to Trump's inauguration.
He arranged for an American 'straw donor' to pay $50,000 to the inaugural committee, knowing that it was actually for a Ukrainian businessman.
Neither the American or the Ukrainian have been named.
CHARGED: KONSTANTIN KILIMNIK
Indicted for obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice. At large, probably in Russia
Kilimnik is a former employee of Manafort's political consulting firm and helped him with lobbying work in Ukraine. He is accused of witness tampering, after he allegedly contacted individuals who had worked with Manafort to remind them that Manafort only performed lobbying work for them outside of the U.S.
He has been linked to Russian intelligence and is currently thought to be in Russia - effectively beyond the reach of extradition by Mueller's team.
INDICTED: THE RUSSIANS
Twenty-five Russian nationals and three Russian entities have been indicted for conspiracy to defraud the United States. They remain at large in Russia
Two of these Russian nationals were also indicted for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 11 were indicted for conspiracy to launder money. Fifteen of them were also indicted for identity fraud.
Vladimir Putin has ridiculed the charges. Russia effectively bars extradition of its nationals. The only prospect Mueller has of bringing any in front of a U.S. jury is if Interpol has their names on an international stop list - which is not made public - and they set foot in a territory which extradites to the U.S.
INDICTED: MICHAEL FLYNN'S BUSINESS PARTNERS
Bijan Kian (left), number two in now disgraced former national security adviser Mike Flynn's lobbying company, and the two's business partner Ekim Alptekin (right) were indicted for conspiracy to lobby illegally. Kian is awaiting trial, Alptekin is still to appear in court
Kian, an Iranian-American was arrested and appeared in court charged with a conspiracy to illegally lobby the U.S government without registering as a foreign agent. Their co-conspirator was Flynn, who is called 'Person A' in the indictment and is not charged, offering some insight into what charges he escaped with his plea deal.
Kian, vice-president of Flynn's former lobbying firm, is alleged to have plotted with Alptekin to try to change U.S. policy on an exiled Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania and who is accused by Turkey's strongman president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, of trying to depose him.
Erdogan's government wanted him extradited from the U.S. and paid Flynn's firm through Alptekin for lobbying, including an op-ed in The Hill calling for Gulen to be ejected. Flynn and Kian both lied that the op-ed was not paid for by the Turkish government.
The indictment is a sign of how Mueller is taking an interest in more than just Russian involvement in the 2016 election.
INDICTED: ROGER STONE
Roger Stone, a former Trump campaign official and longtime informal advisor to Trump, was incited on seven counts including obstruction of justice, witness tampering, and lying to Congress about his communications with WikiLeaks.
Stone was a person of interest to Mueller's investigators long before his January indictment, thanks in part due to his public pronouncements as well as internal emails about his contacts with WikiLeks.
In campaign texts and emails, many of which had already been publicly revealed before showing up in Mueller's indictment, Stone communicated with associates about WikiLeaks following reports the organization had obtained a cache of Clinton-related emails.
Stone, a former Nixon campaign adviser who has the disgraced former president's face permanently tattooed on his back, has long been portrayed as a central figure in the election interference scandal, but as recently as January 4 told Dailymail.com that he doesn't expect to be indicted.
'They got nothing,' he said of the special counsel's investigation.
According to the federal indictment, Stone gave 'false and misleading' testimony about his requests for information from WikiLeaks. He then pressured a witness, comedian Randy Credico, to take the Fifth Amendment rather than testify, and pressured him in a series of emails. Following a prolonged dispute over testimony, he called him a 'rat' and threatened to 'take that dog away from you', in reference to Credico's pet, Bianca. Stone warned him: 'Let's get it on. Prepare to die.'
Link hienalouca.com
https://hienalouca.com/2019/02/27/congressman-who-blasted-cohen-for-secret-girlfriends-on-the-eve-of-testimony-apologizes/
Main photo article GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz has deleted a tweet accusing ex-Trump fixer Michael Cohen of philandering and apologized publicly for making the charged allegation.
Gaetz claimed in the now deleted tweet, without evidence, that Cohen had multiple ‘girlfriends’ his wife should be aware of as he...
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/2019/02/27/14/10360062-6751703-image-a-6_1551276811720.jpg
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