Politics

Rep. Speier: Cohen Has No More Reason To Lie About Pardon

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Phillip Stucky Contributor
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California Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier asserted in a Wednesday interview with Andrea Mitchell that former lawyer to President Donald Trump, Michael Cohen, doesn’t have any reason to lie about asking the president for a pardon.

Cohen testified on Feb. 27 that he did not ask the president for a pardon, though his lawyer Lanny Davis told the Wall Street Journal that the former Trump fixer directed his former attorney to ask about a presidential pardon.

“There is clearly a campaign going on by my Republican colleagues to try and besmirch Michael Cohen at this point and say he is continuing to lie,” Speier asserted. “There is nothing in it for him to lie anymore, that has the effect of only increasing his sentence.”

“What’s coming out is there is a lot of evidence that he has made available to both the oversight committee and the intelligence committee that is very damning against the President of the United States,” she continued.

“Now was there a time before he spoke before the committee that he pursued a pardon? You bet there was, he was lying on behalf of the president. But once he decided that he was no longer going to play in that joint defense agreement, he was not seeking a pardon any longer,” she concluded. (RELATED: Cohen Pleads Guilty To Charge In Mueller Probe)

Speier serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the committee that Cohen testified before on Wednesday. In that testimony, Cohen asserted that at no point had he asked for a pardon from President Trump, nor did he plan on accepting one if it was offered.

Cohen’s own attorney’s redirected that point shortly after the hearing had concluded, saying that Cohen had directed them to reach out to the White House legal team in search of a pardon, but that Cohen himself had not directly pursued a pardon.