Cohen Testifies before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform

Bogart

So this shyster lawyer with like two clients was a bad dude but also the kind of bad dude that kept records and lots of dirt on the most famous of his clients, a guy named Donald Trump.

Today he's going to spill what has been trailed as a particular enticing can of beans all over the place.

• THRILL! As he tells you how Trump buys paintings of himself using funds from his charitable foundation.
• GASP! As photocopied copies of cheques are blown up and displayed like a ring card for an MMA fight.
• SHUDDER! As you hear how the guy didn't even want to be President in the first place.

Some links helpfully provided by lazegamer.

Cohen's opening statement.

CBS live stream of the event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yCtaPHoxB0

One from syphonblue: The evidence presented today

No live tweeting, no unsourced tweets, no posts that are just WOW or jokes or image memes or so help me I'll dog walk the lot of you.

oldmanken

So, one of the things that apparently pissed off some Dem members of the committee last night was that the Democratic leadership was not going to allow questions about Russian involvement. That limitation now appears to be lifted.

Athenor

So the hearing is starting off with the republicans trying to stop the testimony, using procedures and rules, stating that Cohen intentionally did not provide evidence early.

Athenor

The motion to table has passed.

The Republicans are still denying they are trying to prevent Cohen from being heard. They claim they are just following the rules. Funny, how they are doing that now.

BTW, I promise, I'm not going to be following this closely. I'm listening to it, but it just blows me away how out of the gate they have come.

Viskod

Specifically that his testimony was not received 24 hours in advance. His testimony was officially received at 10:08 PM last night.

SyphonBlue

Jim Jordan: We don't want the hearing canceled, just postponed to view the evidence! Like the rules state!
Elijah Cummings: *rolls eyes* Reclaiming my time now....

Unknown

This content has been removed.

Rend

Oghulk wrote: »

I'm not able to watch with audio, so if someone could explain what happened at the beginning where they were recognizing the partisanship that would be great

R's made a couple symbolic movements to delay the hearing, and then requested a roll call instead of voice vote after the second time the chairman declared that the D's outvoted them.

TetraNitroCubane

Athenor wrote: »

The motion to table has passed.

The Republicans are still denying they are trying to prevent Cohen from being heard. They claim they are just following the rules. Funny, how they are doing that now.

BTW, I promise, I'm not going to be following this closely. I'm listening to it, but it just blows me away how out of the gate they have come.

Sorry, this is my being ignorant, but does that mean they're postponing the testimony? I've seen 'to table' used in both manners, and according to Wikipedia, "In the United States, to 'table' usually means to postpone or suspend consideration of a pending motion."

Did the republicans just weasel out of this on a technicality?

spool32

SyphonBlue wrote: »

Jim Jordan: We don't want the hearing canceled, just postponed to view the evidence! Like the rules state!
Elijah Cummings: *rolls eyes* Reclaiming my time now....

Lol

Postpone it for 8 minutes then?

Fencingsax

Rend wrote: »

Oghulk wrote: »

I'm not able to watch with audio, so if someone could explain what happened at the beginning where they were recognizing the partisanship that would be great

R's made a couple symbolic movements to delay the hearing, and then requested a roll call instead of voice vote after the second time the chairman declared that the D's outvoted them.

And then, presumably, the Ds outvoted them.

Rend

TetraNitroCubane wrote: »

Athenor wrote: »

The motion to table has passed.

The Republicans are still denying they are trying to prevent Cohen from being heard. They claim they are just following the rules. Funny, how they are doing that now.

BTW, I promise, I'm not going to be following this closely. I'm listening to it, but it just blows me away how out of the gate they have come.

Sorry, this is my being ignorant, but does that mean they're postponing the testimony? I've seen 'to table' used in both manners, and according to Wikipedia, "In the United States, to 'table' usually means to postpone or suspend consideration of a pending motion."

Did the republicans just weasel out of this on a technicality?

They attempted to move to delay, but D's moved to table the motion to delay, and the motion to table passed. Thus, they will decide whether to delay the hearing after the hearing has occurred.

TetraNitroCubane

Rend wrote: »

They attempted to move to delay, but D's moved to table the motion to delay, and the motion to table passed. Thus, they will decide whether to delay the hearing after the hearing has occurred.

Ah! Gotcha. Thanks much for the clarification.

silence1186

Viskod wrote: »

Specifically that his testimony was not received 24 hours in advance. His testimony was officially received at 10:08 PM last night.

So wait until 10:08 tonight? That seems like a huge waste of time.

Athenor

I just want to say, I do not want to be dressed down by Mr. Cummings. I would wilt like a flower in the high summer sun. His opening statement has been basically pissed off thanks to the R's attempts to squelch this.

Edit: And immediately after, Jim Johnson is saying this is all a Clinton scam.

DoctorArch

Oh how nice, Jim Jordan of sexual assault cover-up fame is being a pretty big dick to Elijah Cummings.

DoctorArch

Hey Jim Jordan, attorney client privilege doesn't apply when it involves criminal acts being encouraged.

Athenor

DoctorArch wrote: »

Hey Jim Jordan, attorney client privilege doesn't apply when it involves criminal acts being encouraged.

Mr. Jordan is also glossing over that all this deception and lying was to protect Trump, and at Trump's bequest.

TetraNitroCubane

Mr. Jim Jordan is currently going with the "This lying liar is such a liar! The Democrats are trying to harm the President, and the only person who we're going to hear from is a huge liar. What a liar he is!" route.

I kind of want to dump a bucket of cold water on this smug motherfucker.

Edit: Jesus Christ, and now Jordan is going with the "THIS IS A CLINTON CONSPIRACY!" angle. And he even had the audacity to say "The people of the United States chose to make Donald Trump their President" THEY DIDN'T YOU ASSHOLE! He lost the popular vote.

BlackDragon480

DoctorArch wrote: »

Oh how nice, Jim Jordan of sexual assault cover-up fame is being a pretty big dick to Elijah Cummings.

I'm pretty sure that's Jordan's natural state of being. He's basically the Platonic ideal/intelligible form of Douche.

But I think it clearly shows they have no actual legal reasons to question Cohen's evidence or testimony, so they're getting their soundbites in while they can.

Rhah

Hah. Jim Jordan worried about the "institutions" now.

Also, he said something about topics being off the table so that the only things they can talk about are things that will hurt the president. Um, excuse me, all those topics off the table are the exact ones that hurt the president.

SyphonBlue

Hey, Jim. Your client is going to jail for lying

TO PROTECT DONALD TRUMP

You conveniently left that big part out.

DoctorArch

It's like a greatest hits of Trump bullshit. If anyone was playing Bingo or a drinking game they're either drunk or winning.

Bogart

Yeah and almost immediately we're in people basically live-tweeting the hearing. Knock it off.

There is no race to post the juiciest gossip first, nor react with eyeball rolling sarcasm before anyone else.

Inkstain82

I’m sure this 47th blatant felony that is going to be proven to the public will be the one that tips things over the edge for Trump.

kaid

Rend wrote: »

TetraNitroCubane wrote: »

Athenor wrote: »

The motion to table has passed.

The Republicans are still denying they are trying to prevent Cohen from being heard. They claim they are just following the rules. Funny, how they are doing that now.

BTW, I promise, I'm not going to be following this closely. I'm listening to it, but it just blows me away how out of the gate they have come.

Sorry, this is my being ignorant, but does that mean they're postponing the testimony? I've seen 'to table' used in both manners, and according to Wikipedia, "In the United States, to 'table' usually means to postpone or suspend consideration of a pending motion."

Did the republicans just weasel out of this on a technicality?

They attempted to move to delay, but D's moved to table the motion to delay, and the motion to table passed. Thus, they will decide whether to delay the hearing after the hearing has occurred.

Please note for UK forum goers in the US tabling something means basically the opposite of what it does in UK parliament context. Tabling it in the US is putting the matter aside for now.

Bogart

Boy I'm sure going to kick a lot of people from this thread today I can tell.

SyphonBlue

Bogart wrote: »

Yeah and almost immediately we're in people basically live-tweeting the hearing. Knock it off.

There is no race to post the juiciest gossip first, nor react with eyeball rolling sarcasm before anyone else.

Can you clarify what you mean by live tweeting? Cause if we're not supposed to be reacting to what's going on, what's the point of this thread?

A Dabble Of Thelonius

For those interested in updates but don't want to watch. Katy Tur and Daniel Dale are both live tweeting and are my go to for such things.

Spawnbroker

So I think I understand why the special counsel's office disputed the BuzzFeed story about Michael Cohen saying that Trump directed him to lie. I think it's pretty clear from Cohen's testimony here that Trump never directly told Cohen to lie about the Moscow deal. But it was obvious to Cohen that Trump wanted him to lie because Trump would say things like "There is no deal in Russia" in conversation with Cohen while Cohen was currently in Russia negotiating the deal.

"Won't someone rid me of this meddlesome priest?"

Astaereth

Cohen is currently reading his opening statement. Highlights so far:

-Trump asked Cohen multiple times during the campaign about the status of the Moscow Tower negotiations; Trump lied about it, not expecting to win the race but expecting to make hundreds of millions.
-Trump didn't ask Cohen directly to lie because he doesn't do that, but he told Cohen "things we both knew to be lies," lies that were consistent with his public lies, which is how Cohen knew Trump wanted him to lie

He's currently introducing himself...

"For the record, Individual #1 is President Donald J. Trump."

Cohen sounds like he's being very melodramatic. Lots of dramatic pauses.

MegaMan001

SyphonBlue wrote: »

Bogart wrote: »

Yeah and almost immediately we're in people basically live-tweeting the hearing. Knock it off.

There is no race to post the juiciest gossip first, nor react with eyeball rolling sarcasm before anyone else.

Can you clarify what you mean by live tweeting? Cause if we're not supposed to be reacting to what's going on, what's the point of this thread?

As someone who can't watch this happen it's actually nice to be able to get a sense of what is going on in real time.

Anyone else feel that way?

Also, yeah, what's the point of the thread if it isn't to react? We have similar live event threads for the Oscars, etc.

Astaereth

Cohen: "Let me now tell you about Mr. Trump."

"When I first met Mr. Trump, he was a successful entrepreneur"-- Mr. Cohen lying is how you got into this mess!

Gaddez

Athenor wrote: »

I just want to say, I do not want to be dressed down by Mr. Cummings. I would wilt like a flower in the high summer sun. His opening statement has been basically pissed off thanks to the R's attempts to squelch this.

Edit: And immediately after, Jim Johnson is saying this is all a Clinton scam.

How? The Clintons hold no seats in any branch of government and hillary is a 3 time loser for the presidency (2004, 2008, 2016) so how can this be a scam by them?

shryke

SyphonBlue wrote: »

Bogart wrote: »

Yeah and almost immediately we're in people basically live-tweeting the hearing. Knock it off.

There is no race to post the juiciest gossip first, nor react with eyeball rolling sarcasm before anyone else.

Can you clarify what you mean by live tweeting? Cause if we're not supposed to be reacting to what's going on, what's the point of this thread?

Post like the people you are talking to aren't watching the hearing and so cannot know the context of what you are talking about unless you provide it.

Don't just comment on something. Explain what is going on and then comment on it. Provide a tweet or video of the thing you are talking about. And so on.

Cause some of us actually can't watch the hearing right now.

Bogart

SyphonBlue wrote: »

Bogart wrote: »

Yeah and almost immediately we're in people basically live-tweeting the hearing. Knock it off.

There is no race to post the juiciest gossip first, nor react with eyeball rolling sarcasm before anyone else.

Can you clarify what you mean by live tweeting? Cause if we're not supposed to be reacting to what's going on, what's the point of this thread?

From the rules.

This is a forum, not a feed. A wave of posts in the vein of "lol can you believe Spicer just said that" take up space and add, essentially, nothing worth having - particularly when ten people are doing it at once. The guiding principle here needs to be "if someone comes back and reads my post later, will they have the slightest scintilla of a clue what the fuck I was talking about?" If the answer is no, then fire up Tweetdeck and take it there.

Provide context for your reaction. Posts like "same old bullshit ugh nothing changes" or "god Jim jordan you're being rude right now are not wanted or particularly productive.

Like I said earlier, it's not a race. There's no rush to bang in a one sentence reaction to something.

Bogart

MegaMan001 wrote: »

Also, yeah, what's the point of the thread if it isn't to react? We have similar live event threads for the Oscars, etc.

Rules are different for political threads.

If you desperately want someone to live-tweet the events you could, and this is crazy I know, go on Twitter.

MegaMan001 wrote: »

Anyone else feel that way?

If you have a problem with moderation take it to a pm, and include two mods.

BlackDragon480

Astaereth wrote: »

Cohen: "Let me now tell you about Mr. Trump."

"When I first met Mr. Trump, he was a successful entrepreneur"-- Mr. Cohen lying is how you got into this mess!

Well, in 1994/5 his real estate holdings were still fairly decent, the casinos were going through Chapter 11 but still operating.

It's more of a half truth than blantent lie.

shryke

Gaddez wrote: »

Athenor wrote: »

I just want to say, I do not want to be dressed down by Mr. Cummings. I would wilt like a flower in the high summer sun. His opening statement has been basically pissed off thanks to the R's attempts to squelch this.

Edit: And immediately after, Jim Johnson is saying this is all a Clinton scam.

How? The Clintons hold no seats in any branch of government and hillary is a 3 time loser for the presidency (2004, 2008, 2016) so how can this be a scam by them?

The well of "blame the Clintons" will never run dry. They came into power as right-wing radio and Fox News really got going and so they are the first and ultimate example of the right-wing machine inventing news to keep the base angry.

Astaereth

This is basically a deleted Sopranos scene. Cohen is like, "Tony Soprano is capable of kindness, but he is not kind." The writing is terrible and I'm not sure this dramatic, high school badmouthing of Trump is going to convince any Trump fans to switch sides.

Ooo, now he's talking about the Roger Stone phone call. This is maybe the most interesting part of the whole thing--in collusion terms, this is the quo. Or is it the quid? Anyway Cohen makes the first public connection between Trump and Stone and through Stone to Assange and through Assange to the hacked Hillary emails, by saying he overheard a phone call where Stone informed Trump of an upcoming email drop days before it happened.

Cohen talks about how Trump made statements about how dumb black people are, but he didn't say the n-word so nobody will care.

SyphonBlue

Bogart wrote: »

SyphonBlue wrote: »

Bogart wrote: »

Yeah and almost immediately we're in people basically live-tweeting the hearing. Knock it off.

There is no race to post the juiciest gossip first, nor react with eyeball rolling sarcasm before anyone else.

Can you clarify what you mean by live tweeting? Cause if we're not supposed to be reacting to what's going on, what's the point of this thread?

From the rules.

This is a forum, not a feed. A wave of posts in the vein of "lol can you believe Spicer just said that" take up space and add, essentially, nothing worth having - particularly when ten people are doing it at once. The guiding principle here needs to be "if someone comes back and reads my post later, will they have the slightest scintilla of a clue what the fuck I was talking about?" If the answer is no, then fire up Tweetdeck and take it there.

Provide context for your reaction. Posts like "same old bullshit ugh nothing changes" or "god Jim jordan you're being rude right now are not wanted or particularly productive.

Like I said earlier, it's not a race. There's no rush to bang in a one sentence reaction to something.

Thanks