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Whitaker ‘did not deny’ talking to Trump about Cohen, personnel at SDNY, top Democrat says
The Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said Wednesday that former acting attorney general Matthew G. Whitaker “did not deny” that President Trump “called him to discuss the case” against his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, as well as decisions regarding the personnel at the federal prosecutor’s office bringing the case against Cohen.
Speaking to reporters after a two-hour meeting with Whitaker, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) presented Whitaker’s closed-door comments as a contradiction of his public testimony from February, during which Whitaker said Trump never expressed his dissatisfaction with Cohen for pleading guilty to various financial crimes and lying to Congress. When asked at that hearing whether he had ever discussed the Cohen case with Trump, Whitaker refused to answer the question.
“Unlike in the hearing room, Mr. Whitaker did not deny that the president called him to discuss the Michael Cohen case and personnel decisions in the Southern District,” Nadler said, referring to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which brought the case against Cohen.
But Rep. Douglas A. Collins (R-Ga.), who was also present for the interview, strongly disagreed with Nadler, calling it an “interpretation” — and insisting that Whitaker “said he did not talk with the president about Mr. Cohen at all, and had no conversations with the Southern District of New York.”
The dispute is the latest controversy to surround Whitaker’s statements, as lawmakers argue along partisan lines about whether Whitaker misled Congress about his brief tenure as acting attorney general and his contacts with the president while overseeing special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe.
Whitaker did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to Nadler, Whitaker did not refute the assertion that he was “directly involved in conversations about whether to fire one or more U.S. attorneys.” Nadler also said that Whitaker did not deny having been “involved in conversations about the scope” of the recusal of the Southern District of New York’s lead prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, from Cohen’s case — and whether the prosecutors “went too far in pursuing the campaign finance case in which Trump is Individual-1.”
But Collins countered that such conversations were internal discussions that Whitaker had with his own staff, in the course of carrying out his duties as acting attorney general.
“To imply that there’s anything nefarious there is a way overreach of anything that was discussed,” Collins said. “The only thing that Mr. Whitaker said about that was he had discussions with his personal staff . . . he never had any conversations with the Southern District of New York about any case while he was acting attorney general.”
When Nadler was pressed to explain what Whitaker’s purported series of non-denials meant, he simply stated that “he would not say no.” He pledged also to “analyze the new revelations and see where they lead.”
Whitaker has been a lightning rod for partisan infighting since his appointment as acting attorney general, when he took over from former attorney general Jeff Sessions shortly after the midterm elections last year. His meeting with Nadler and Collins comes slightly more than a month after he testified in public before the House Judiciary Committee, pushing back against Democrats’ concerns that he could have used his position overseeing the Mueller probe to benefit Trump’s position.
Republicans objected to that hearing at the time as pointless, as it took place just days before the Senate confirmed William P. Barr to serve as attorney general.
“We thought the hearing shouldn't have happened, so if you want to bring him back in, then fine,” Collins said Wednesday just before the meeting with Whitaker began. “It’s the chairman’s meeting, so I’m just going to sit there and listen and see what he says.”
Nadler had promised to follow up with Whitaker over purported omissions during his testimony, during which Whitaker either refused to detail the substance of conversations he had with Trump or gave answers that, in Nadler’s estimation, strained credulity.
[In combative hearing, Whitaker says he did not discuss Mueller probe with Trump but dodges other inquiries]
Democrats found suspect Whitaker’s assertion then that he never discussed his views regarding Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Whitaker was interviewing to join the White House legal team and had voiced his negative opinions about Mueller’s probe as a television pundit before Trump recommended him to be Sessions’s chief of staff.
When Trump named Whitaker acting attorney general, temporarily replacing Sessions, Democrats argued that those opinions made Whitaker unfit to oversee Mueller’s probe, questioning whether Whitaker would use his position to limit the inquiry or feed valuable information about the investigation to Trump and his lawyer. Whitaker has firmly denied doing anything of the kind.
Nadler’s claim that Whitaker didn’t deny speaking with Trump about Cohen’s case and personnel decisions at the Southern District of New York now raises new questions about his testimony. It is was not immediately clear, however, whether Wednesday’s meeting is the precursor to another public hearing with the former acting attorney general, or simply an effort to wrap up lingering suspicions about the completeness of Whitaker’s testimony as the panel prepares to receive Mueller’s final report.
SDNY seems to have continued interest in Cohen. A New York lawyer revealed Wednesday that federal prosecutors there have requested documents from him about his cryptic interactions with the president’s former personal attorney soon after the FBI raided Cohen’s house in April.
The lawyer, Robert Costello, said in a statement Wednesday that he was preparing to provide the materials to the U.S. attorney’s office, and accused Cohen or his lawyer of having “selectively” leaked copies of their email exchanges “to bolster the false narrative that they originally tried to peddle in the media last week.”
CNN reported earlier in the day that Costello had told Cohen he could “sleep well tonight” because he had “friends in high places,” according to emails the network said it reviewed. CNN reported that Costello said he was in touch with Trump lawyer Rudolph Giuliani, who thanked him for opening a “back channel” of communication to Cohen.
The communications are important because Cohen recently alleged to lawmakers that Trump allies dangled the prospect of a pardon to him after the FBI raid, though he has also acknowledged he directed his own attorney, Stephen Ryan, to approach Giuliani about a possible pardon. Costello’s emails could be viewed as evidence supporting the assertion that a pardon was dangled to Cohen — though CNN reported the emails it reviewed never specifically referenced a pardon. Costello disputed he was trying to send a furtive signal.
“To repeat myself, Michael Cohen and his counsel’s interpretation of events is utter nonsense,” he said in the statement. “ This statement: ‘Sleep Well tonight, you have friends in high places’ was a tongue-in-cheek reference to a Garth Brooks song, to a client whose state of mind was highly disturbed and had suggested to us that he was suicidal. We were simply trying to be decent human beings. There is no hidden message.”
Whitaker ‘did not deny’ talking to Trump about Cohen, personnel at SDNY, top Democrat says
The Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said Wednesday that former acting attorney general Matthew G. Whitaker “did not deny” that President Trump “called him to discuss the case” against his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, as well as decisions regarding the personnel at the federal prosecutor’s office bringing the case against Cohen.
Speaking to reporters after a two-hour meeting with Whitaker, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) presented Whitaker’s closed-door comments as a contradiction of his public testimony from February, during which Whitaker said Trump never expressed his dissatisfaction with Cohen for pleading guilty to various financial crimes and lying to Congress. When asked at that hearing whether he had ever discussed the Cohen case with Trump, Whitaker refused to answer the question.
“Unlike in the hearing room, Mr. Whitaker did not deny that the president called him to discuss the Michael Cohen case and personnel decisions in the Southern District,” Nadler said, referring to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which brought the case against Cohen.
But Rep. Douglas A. Collins (R-Ga.), who was also present for the interview, strongly disagreed with Nadler, calling it an “interpretation” — and insisting that Whitaker “said he did not talk with the president about Mr. Cohen at all, and had no conversations with the Southern District of New York.”
The dispute is the latest controversy to surround Whitaker’s statements, as lawmakers argue along partisan lines about whether Whitaker misled Congress about his brief tenure as acting attorney general and his contacts with the president while overseeing special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe.
Whitaker did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to Nadler, Whitaker did not refute the assertion that he was “directly involved in conversations about whether to fire one or more U.S. attorneys.” Nadler also said that Whitaker did not deny having been “involved in conversations about the scope” of the recusal of the Southern District of New York’s lead prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, from Cohen’s case — and whether the prosecutors “went too far in pursuing the campaign finance case in which Trump is Individual-1.”
But Collins countered that such conversations were internal discussions that Whitaker had with his own staff, in the course of carrying out his duties as acting attorney general.
“To imply that there’s anything nefarious there is a way overreach of anything that was discussed,” Collins said. “The only thing that Mr. Whitaker said about that was he had discussions with his personal staff . . . he never had any conversations with the Southern District of New York about any case while he was acting attorney general.”
When Nadler was pressed to explain what Whitaker’s purported series of non-denials meant, he simply stated that “he would not say no.” He pledged also to “analyze the new revelations and see where they lead.”
Whitaker has been a lightning rod for partisan infighting since his appointment as acting attorney general, when he took over from former attorney general Jeff Sessions shortly after the midterm elections last year. His meeting with Nadler and Collins comes slightly more than a month after he testified in public before the House Judiciary Committee, pushing back against Democrats’ concerns that he could have used his position overseeing the Mueller probe to benefit Trump’s position.
Republicans objected to that hearing at the time as pointless, as it took place just days before the Senate confirmed William P. Barr to serve as attorney general.
“We thought the hearing shouldn't have happened, so if you want to bring him back in, then fine,” Collins said Wednesday just before the meeting with Whitaker began. “It’s the chairman’s meeting, so I’m just going to sit there and listen and see what he says.”
Nadler had promised to follow up with Whitaker over purported omissions during his testimony, during which Whitaker either refused to detail the substance of conversations he had with Trump or gave answers that, in Nadler’s estimation, strained credulity.
[In combative hearing, Whitaker says he did not discuss Mueller probe with Trump but dodges other inquiries]
Democrats found suspect Whitaker’s assertion then that he never discussed his views regarding Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Whitaker was interviewing to join the White House legal team and had voiced his negative opinions about Mueller’s probe as a television pundit before Trump recommended him to be Sessions’s chief of staff.
When Trump named Whitaker acting attorney general, temporarily replacing Sessions, Democrats argued that those opinions made Whitaker unfit to oversee Mueller’s probe, questioning whether Whitaker would use his position to limit the inquiry or feed valuable information about the investigation to Trump and his lawyer. Whitaker has firmly denied doing anything of the kind.
Nadler’s claim that Whitaker didn’t deny speaking with Trump about Cohen’s case and personnel decisions at the Southern District of New York now raises new questions about his testimony. It is was not immediately clear, however, whether Wednesday’s meeting is the precursor to another public hearing with the former acting attorney general, or simply an effort to wrap up lingering suspicions about the completeness of Whitaker’s testimony as the panel prepares to receive Mueller’s final report.
SDNY seems to have continued interest in Cohen. A New York lawyer revealed Wednesday that federal prosecutors there have requested documents from him about his cryptic interactions with the president’s former personal attorney soon after the FBI raided Cohen’s house in April.
The lawyer, Robert Costello, said in a statement Wednesday that he was preparing to provide the materials to the U.S. attorney’s office, and accused Cohen or his lawyer of having “selectively” leaked copies of their email exchanges “to bolster the false narrative that they originally tried to peddle in the media last week.”
CNN reported earlier in the day that Costello had told Cohen he could “sleep well tonight” because he had “friends in high places,” according to emails the network said it reviewed. CNN reported that Costello said he was in touch with Trump lawyer Rudolph Giuliani, who thanked him for opening a “back channel” of communication to Cohen.
The communications are important because Cohen recently alleged to lawmakers that Trump allies dangled the prospect of a pardon to him after the FBI raid, though he has also acknowledged he directed his own attorney, Stephen Ryan, to approach Giuliani about a possible pardon. Costello’s emails could be viewed as evidence supporting the assertion that a pardon was dangled to Cohen — though CNN reported the emails it reviewed never specifically referenced a pardon. Costello disputed he was trying to send a furtive signal.
“To repeat myself, Michael Cohen and his counsel’s interpretation of events is utter nonsense,” he said in the statement. “ This statement: ‘Sleep Well tonight, you have friends in high places’ was a tongue-in-cheek reference to a Garth Brooks song, to a client whose state of mind was highly disturbed and had suggested to us that he was suicidal. We were simply trying to be decent human beings. There is no hidden message.”
